Eco-driving

Can there be such a thing? I hear you ask. Well, no, probably not. However, I have been trying to put into practice the eco-driving tips I mentioned in a previous post.

I'm going to use a slightly smaller font now, so Mr Ruby doesn't see this confession. (He's older than me and the eyesight is always the first thing to go.) That 'change gear before 2,500 revs' thing is really hard to do!

But I am working on it and I'm getting a lot better!

I've also been a lot more circumspect about using the in-car air conditioning. Apparently it guzzles fuel like nobody's business. However, if you're bombing along and it's hot outside, using the air-conditioning is actually more fuel-efficient than opening the windows, as open windows increase drag.

See? See what has happened to me since I started this blog? I am obsessed with dull trivia like that!

Speaking of eco-driving, I've managed two car-free days this week, although since both were largely due to me not going anywhere, it doesn't make for rivetting reading. I pledge to make it more of a challenge next week, by using public transport at least once.

Biodiversity

I know: this has apparently little to do with going car-free (except maybe fewer bugs getting squashed on the windscreen...), but there have been a lot of interesting bugs in my garden recently. One flew into the conservatory the other day and I got quite excited at the prospect of it being a Red Mason Bee, these being the trendy ones to have (doncha know?). However, it wasn't a Red Mason Bee, or indeed any kind of bee. It was a Syrphus ribesii, or a hoverfly. Luckily these are also on the bug 'Wall of Cool'. (See - knew I'd get a car reference in there somewhere!)

Good grief, I sound like some kind of Jeremy Clarkson-Ross Geller hybrid!

The Mouse has been less enthusiastic about anything creepy and crawlie. In fact, she's been near hysterical on the topic. However, we found a way around this: we've named them all. No, not in any kind of entomological fashion; we've just given them all first names. 'Oh, that bug? That's just Harry the Hoverfly... Bessie the Bee,' etc. You get the idea! On the downside, any that now meet a natural death are almost mourned.

If you are interested in the biodiversity of your own backyard, the Natural England website is very good.

This month I pledge to...

Having not quite got over the shock of the scale of my apparent eco-terrorism, I had a good think about what I could do which would a) improve things and b) provide an at least vaguely interesting read. After becoming quite nerdily engrossed in the eco-driving tips section of the Direct Gov website and realising that my own driving has been, quite frankly, appalling (oh, how I hate it when Mr Ruby is proved right!), I thought maybe something related to transport...

Then today a moment of scattiness from Mr Ruby decided it for me: I am going car-free this month! OK, so that would genuinely impressive, but steady on there - I live in a small village with few amenities. If I didn't drive at all I'd become a recluse! So, my scaled-down version of this lofty aim is to go car-free for one day a week, during the next month.

In case you were wondering how Mr Ruby's senior moment contributed to this, he went to work this morning, taking my car keys with me. Myself and the Rubettes relied on the following alternative modes of transport:

1. Dora the Explorer Scooter (the Mouse)

2. 3-wheel buggy (TR)

3. Pram (TR)

A much younger TR, in the pram

4. Kiddy Board (the Mouse)

5. My feet (me)

If the truth be told, I wasn't actually planning to use the car today, but anyway... I did have to walk to school and back three times today... and run round a park after TR, while the Mouse had her tennis lesson. Goodness - if this carries on for much longer, I shall be almost athletic! Now, where did I put my biscuits?

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

Yes, dear readers, that is the sound of me stomping all over our carbon-depleted planet, with my outsize carbon boots on. I calculated my carbon footprint here and was a little shocked to discover that the total CO2 emitted by our household, for the year, is a whopping 16.25 tonnes. To put that in context, the UK national average is 10.22 tonnes per year. (Source: Direct Gov Act on CO2.) What have we been doing? Doing the school run via Lear Jet?!?*

Well, as it turns out, aeroplane usage did rather contribute. Last year we flew to the USA to visit Mr Ruby's brother and family and Mr Ruby has notched up a few business flights lately. Also, since our fridge and freezer are over 12 years old and I own a tumble dryer (which I rarely use, by the way!) we are apparently not very green: barely chartreuse, in fact. Initially I felt quite put out about this: after all, is there really any serious eco sense in discarding a working fridge, just to buy a new, A-rated appliance, what with all the implications of disposal and manufacturing, etc.? Surely not! However, once I'd got over feeling persecuted by a faceless entity, I decided to give some serious thought to reducing my 16.25 tonne footprint into something a little more svelte and sexy... but what, exactly?

* Actually I usually walk there and back.

How hard can it be?

Right, after scarcely any thought at all, I have decided to try and reduce my carbon footprint. I could go all-out and move to a yurt, compost my own bodily waste and raise organically reared yaks, but it all seems a bit of a faff and, anyway, the lawn is far too small for the yaks. Accordingly I have come up with a sort of dumbed-down and, yes I know, largely token-effort version of this:

I am going to... ... do one thing. A month. And see how it goes. That's one lifestyle change a month - nothing too arduous, nothing too radical. Then I'll sort of randomly blog about it - my successes, my failures and whether or not I think it's made a blind bit of difference. I'll also keep you up to speed on what the rest of the family make of it. Oh, and I'm hoping some more people might join me. I'll post my good intention for the month and you can pledge to try the same if you like. You could also suggest good intentions for subsequent months and, if I think I can attempt them with a cup of tea in one hand, I might take you up on them.