h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ask anyone and they say they care.

But we continue to build more houses as the population increases..there is more and more pressure on green belt around London. We continue to built new roads. We are happy for fertilisers to be used for crops that cause run off into the natural water system. That means cheaper vegetables.

There'll be loads of other stuff..but lets stop there.

I have made a pointless but rather pleasurable gesture in the last couple of years of setting up a traditional English wildflower meadow and am creating small areas of traditional hedgerow areas with plants like hawthorn, hazel, blackthorn etc. Also I have a pond which I only let rain water fill. Tap water has higher levels of nitrates. But yeah I'm a consumer like anyone else.

Oh and people from other countries are welcome to contribute from their perspectives.

So how much do you care or not? And if so what gestures do you make?

Oooh, the wildflower meadow sounds great - and I'm glad that the hedgerows still seem to be very much intact here!

I was fortunately raised to be environmentally conscious, so I do quite a few small things that add up. The biggest, perhaps, is not eating meat. I'm also careful about food in general - I won't buy asparagus imported from Peru and other nonsense like that. And I try not to waste any food at all. Lunch goes to work in a re-useable container. And I try to avoid "disposable" things like paper plates and tinfoil - where unavoidable, like for toilet paper, I buy the recycled stuff.

Plus I cycle to work when the weather permits; I'd feel silly starting the car for what amounts to a 25-minute bike to work. And I buy clothes and furniture secondhand, though that's also a matter of economics.

That said, I, too, am still a happy little consumer.

I don't own a car, I've produced no progeny, almost all my food is fresh and loose, where possible.

My laundry is done at 45C (the lowest setting on my machine) except for the monthly 95C wash to do cotton bedding and refresh the machine.

All lights are low-wattage. I rarely coo, but when I do it is via the hob, microwave or slow-cooker. I admit I do use stand-by and my um, at 77, does have the television on 18 hours a day, and it is an L.C.D. which is more power-hungry then C.R.T's ever where, but I ca't reasonably stop that.

My other vice is that my technology, such as cameras, iPod, iBook and iPad do require recharging, as do my cordless phones, but then I guess that to live without technology would revert us back to Neanderthals.

I'm a pale green, but do as much as I can and still have a reasonable life.

Oh! And I only use central heating when there is ghastly, dangerous white stuff on the group.

MMF

And when was the last time you watched a natural world type programme that wasn't depressing?

Eg just now on iPlayer I went to 'Natural World'. The blurb says, so and so swims with killer whales and discovers disturbing information about their decline and her findings reveal disturbing information about the health of our oceans.

I've stopped watching these type of programmes.

"My laundry is done at 45C (the lowest setting on my machine) except for the monthly 95C wash to do cotton bedding and refresh the machine"

Your laundry will be just as clean, will last longer, and you'll save energy if you wash in cold water (that's the lowest setting on your machine).

(Anticipating disagreement )

Ps How many researchers waste money/energy needlessly heating their wash?

I leave my gardens to do whatever they want to do, knowing the winter will kill most of it off, but that's more laziness than environmentalism.

Don't own a car, walk a lot and uses buses/trains for the rest. Wash my laundry at 40 degrees. Use duvets rather than central heating until it gets really cold. People littering makes me incandescent with rage especially when you're out walking somewhere remote/pristine.

>I leave my gardens<

How many gardens do you have HI?

And yes I'm with you on litter in somewhere special and remote.

Three. Back one, front one right in front of the house and a second front one that's separated from the first by a footpath. It's not very big though.

I've used CFLs since it was nearly impossible to find them for sale, over 20 years. My house is insulated to the last little inch, the only exception is I have no curtains, but I've triple glazed the windows instead.

I used to recycle cans in the days you had to take them to a scrapyard and sell them because there were no collections. I reduce and reuse *before* recycling because recycling should be last choice.

I have a wildlife garden and have for years, I use a wormery, a compost heap and various other means to not put things in bins, and I use compostable bags where possible (not biodegradable which usually don't get the chance to biodegrade) and take my own bags. I don't fly, except that trip to India I took.

I do consume the leccy, but am working on the solar panels. I hadn't done it before because it's only recently they have become cheap enough. We don't use enough hot water/heating to have made it worthwhile before. I do have two cars *blush* but I drive as efficiently as I can and save things up so I can make less journeys.

I use the 30 degrees setting on my washing, I have tried washing in cold and it *doesn't* clean things properly, but of course I probably have more stains than most people with my job! I do have to do a 90 degree wash every now and then, to clean the machine after washing mud and dog hair and poo off everything!

Like everyone I guess I have some areas where I do as much as possible, then other areas where I could do more, but don't, usually for work. I have tried to give up my car, but lack of public transport in the area stopped that. There are now evening and weekend buses here, but of course my job means I need a vehicle.

Giving up meat is probably the best thing most of us can do. But I love my meat.