Eco bollox

There is such a load of crap talked about the environment, global warming, carbon footprints (what the hell is that? We’re all made of carbon aren’t we?) these days. I remember talking to people about global warming 20 years ago and they all thought I was some loony leftie hippie nutcase. And now…. now they think they can stop decades (nay, centuries) of not giving a toss about what we are doing to the environment by using our cars a bit less and paying more air tax. What a load of bollox! It is far too late to stop the tide of change now… Don’t get me wrong, I do my bit by recycling what I can and shop local as much as possible and that kind of stuff, but do they honestly think that if we stop putting our tellys and other electrical audio visual equipment on standby we can save the planet? They must think we are really stupid. Oh yeah! And if we did all turn off our dvd’s, videos, satellite boxes etc., we would lose all our settings and have to re-programme them every time we wanted to watch something. Well, I guess we could go down the road of not watching t.v. at all. But I have known a few of those in my time – self-righteous hypocrites mainly, who don’t own a t.v. set, but are happy to come round your house and watch yours! I was quite amused the other week to overhear a conversation in our local supermarket between a man and a woman:

Woman: ‘so what are doing tonight?’
Man: ‘I am going to pick up a television actually’.
Woman: ‘No! I can’t believe it! You are so against that kind of thing!’
Man: ‘I know, but it’s only a small second hand-one and we’ll keep it upstairs and only use it for special occasions’.

I really found it so hard not to laugh but somehow I managed it and gave him a wry look instead. He noticed this and the look I got back was almost as fumy as the conversation. You could tell he knew I had sussed him as a complete tosser. And what special occasions was he on about? The Queen’s speech at Christmas? The Coronation? (he could be waiting some time). I had visions of a small child getting really excited when the telly came down for some ‘special occasion’ and dad had to blow the dust off and fiddle with the aerial to get the reception, and by the time they had managed to get a decent picture, the programme they wanted to watch was over! Just like the old days!

It’s fine line between saving the planet and being an asshole if you ask me, so I think I won’t bother with either.