As of late, I tend to think about the environment most during the summer. “Climate change” has been an ever-looming threat in the back of my mind for years now, but the summer is when it’s most impossible to compartmentalise. Heat-waves that feel less like “waves” and more like a never-ending suffocating warmth makes me ponder how we reached the world we’re living in. The common refrain of years prior has always been “it’s not any worse than August 1990, stop being dramatic”, but seeing the record for the hottest day in June in recorded history being broken day-after-day makes one reconsider the legitimacy of the “dramatic” accusations. The fact of the matter is, the UK should not be this hot. It simply shouldn’t. The UK, a nation infamous for its cold and rainy climate, has been projected to see a 40 times greater likelihood of temperatures exceeding 40 degrees in comparison to just 60 years ago and it is almost entirely human-induced. Imagine that– droughts, wildfires and extreme weather, all the consequences of our own choices and actions. It’s a little frustrating, isn’t it?
As I lay in bed on these sticky 24 degree summer nights, head hanging out the window in the hopes that the warm air catches the slightest breeze, I think about the ways in which I’ve personally contributed to this tortuous fate, and the ways in which I haven’t. I used to travel domestically by plane a lot, a fact I feel immense guilt about as I toss and turn in the thick, dead air of my room. At least one round-trip from London to Glasgow a month– that was roughly 2.6 tonnes of CO2 emissions produced by me alone in the space of a year! At the time I’d convince myself it wasn’t so bad as the flight would’ve gone ahead regardless of whether I was aboard or not, or that it was merely a drop in the ocean compared to the mammoth carbon footprints of billionaires like Taylor Swift or corporations like Shell, but the fact of the matter is that frivolities are still frivolities regardless of how relevant I am in the cultural zeitgeist, and my impact on the environment will still exist if I have less in my bank account than a mega-celebrity. At the very least, I take a lot of public transport. I don’t (read: can’t) drive, so I don’t produce all those nasty pollutants released into the air and lowering air quality. I walk, take the bus or train to most places, which reduces urban transport emissions by about 10%, though I often wonder whether this lifestyle choice would be maintained if I ever learned how to drive. In bed, I decide that I’ll delay my driving lessons at least another year, and perhaps take up cycling in the States. It’d certainly offset the massive footprint I’d produce from flying from London to New York at least partially, which is a place to start.
