Environmental sin

Jeremy over at Make Wealth History has been posting some good stuff on the state of the environment in the past few days. Did you know there is a pile of rubbish in the sea bigger than the US? There is. What a shocker. Can't think of a clearer sign of environmental sin than this or a better reason to think about what we consume and therefore throw away. Talking of throwing away - that's what we do to 1/3 of the food we buy. When you think just a little about that - doesn't it strike you as, well, sinful?

So what can we do to be a part of something that liberates creation from its bondage to decay? Small things like this idea for book addicts like me. I've been mulling over what we could do as a household to change our lifestyle habits to better respond to the challenges creation faces. Aiming for zero landfill waste, might be the thing. Which with child number one on the way will be a challenge.

Recent changes include signing up to a new energy tariff - Betterplan from SSE, that rewards customers for consuming less. I now have an energy monitor that shows changes in energy consumption. It's both cool and disturbing to see how much energy the kettle requires...and how much it costs. We're composting, recycling more than ever and we're about to begin growing some of our own veg.

If I remember I'll write something on parenting, because it strikes me that if I don't learn how to live more sustainably then my children won't either and what I'll do is raise more people who consume at levels the planet can't afford. So perhaps the most profound thing I can do is to raise environmentally aware kids!