At the half way point to my Here and Now Challenge, I am beginning to realise just how easy, and also how enjoyable, it has been so far to cut my carbon footprint.
I started my challenge by going into town to meet my friends. Normally, I would lazily beg my mum for a lift, pretty please! But not any longer. I took a refreshing walk and got the bus into town. It was such an easy and convenient journey, and I even met a few friends from primary school on the bus.
Once in town, and after a nice catch-up chat, I did a bit of shopping with my friends. I made a conscious decision to decline all the plastics bags that were offered to me, instead using the canvas one that I had brought with me from home. Not only environmentally friendly, this bag is stronger and looks a lot more fashionable!
Hours later, and feeling hungry, we all slumped into the nearest restaurant. I had decided to cut meat out of my diet to reduce my carbon footprint, and then I had an ingenious plan: I should persuade my friends to join me in eating vegetarian so that collectively, our positive affect would be greater. So, we tucked into broad bean risotto and apple crumble: it was delicious and even left us feeling less bloated than usual.
After the successful meal, I then made my way home on the bus, giving me a good half hour to contemplate how easy it was to make small differences to our lifestyle, and yet how significant they could be.
I have also been getting the train to school everyday, rather than depending on lifts as I used to. With none of the usual congestion to worry about, this has actually given me 20 minutes more sleeping time in the mornings as I can now leave later! What’s even better is that I get to spend more time with my friends on the train in the morning. We have had some great laughs, and I will definitely continue to get the train after the challenge is over.
I have also been persuading my family to turn our central heating off. We have the tendency to turn it up to maximum and then walk around wearing the same amount of clothes we would in summer. The irrationality of this struck me as I thought more about ways to reduce my carbon footprint. So, I turned our heating off and simply put more jumpers on, which is also saving money on our gas bill.
So far the Here and Now challenge has been a surprisingly enjoyable experience. I have discovered some great, simple ways to reduce my carbon footprint and bring other benefits to my life too, and look forward to trialling many more.
Tags: climate change, here & now challenge, Youth, youth challenge
