I WANT to do the right thing by the environment, and so do you. But, let’s face it: it isn’t always easy.
The moment one contemplates the sheer scale of the problem we face, it is difficult not to feel profoundly depressed. For example, in order to research this article, I visited The World Counts (www. theworldcounts.com), which offers all the latest environmental statistics, and it was enough to send me to bed for the day.
The thing I find hardest about trying to be greener is choosing between all the countless options on offer. Are bamboo toothbrushes better than electric ones? Do trains always cause less pollution than planes? Ought one to replace old (but perfectly usable ) domestic appliances with new, low-energy versions? There is so much information out there (some of it contradictory) to analyse. When I find myself in despair, I remember an essay by Loren Eiseley in which two men are walking along a beach covered by thousands of washed-up, dying starfish. One of the men starts throwing individual starfish back into the water. The other man points out that there are so many starfish in trouble, his companion’s actions will make no difference. But the first man replies that it will make a difference to each starfish he manages to save.
It is an oft-repeated story, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Clergyman Sydney Smith put it in a nutshell when he said: ‘It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little—do what you can.’
The top 10 myths
The green thing is to give up palm oil
Esta historia es de la edición May 20, 2020 de Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
