She’s slipping away from me, I can feel it. ‘It’s not you it’s me’ she’ll say, but I know the truth. She prefers the younger options. They can move faster, look sleeker. They use all that new technology that doesn’t need me. It all started when the entire 120 Warrington bus fleet changed to electric buses powered by green energy. The council even has its own solar farm. Now all she does is travel by bus and go on about the carbon offset of public transport. They’ve taken away over 6000 tonnes of CO2 and she’s supporting that? She even takes the bus to the library. The public library. Willingly choosing to share reading material with hundreds of strangers and their grubby hands, rather than buy a new, shiny, plastic covered book whenever she wants to read.
It only got worse when the trips became more demanding. No electric buses to Manchester means taking the car, right? Wrong. First the bus, then the train to the Chinese embassy for her visa. Always going the longer route if it means she can cut me out. But I won’t leave that easily. I cling to her. I control it all. I’m in the plastic she holds, wears and consumes. She needs me. I know she does. But she’s finding ways around it. Shampoo bars with no plastic and upcycling old clothes. Anything to make me less important. Still, they’re no good.
But making her see that with all those other options in China will be difficult. The metro, high-speed trains, even the rentable bikes. If it’s not walkable, she’ll choose the greener option. She’s already impressed by the zero-emission buses, I can’t even imagine what living in a country with such a climate conscious government will do. All those committees and strategies and general public interest make me feel so small. I don’t think I can stand to hear about the 1 + N policy system one more time. She’s so interested in the planned carbon sink and the bank loans to help implement carbon mitigating technology. She’s probably going to join another council where they implement climate friendly strategies like she did in college. There are so many green initiatives at her partner university for her to get involved with, I know she’s going to disregard me.
The day she flies out is the day I lose her permanently. That direct flight that she picked purposely to use as little of me as she possibly could. A meagre 1.4 tonnes of carbon, then we’re done. There’s only so much you can do to cling on to someone that’s doing everything to get rid of you.
References :
https://curb6.com/offset?q=1539664
https://www.warrington.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2021-09/ZEBRA%20Business%20Case%20for%20website.pdf
https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/SDG%20Resource%20Document_Targets%20Overview.pdf
http://en.bisu.edu.cn/2025-01/06/c_1063955.htm
