Yesterday, there was an interesting article in The Guardian about a new movement that has just been launched in Britain to encourage people to make key changes in the way that they live to help combat climate change.

"From using smartphones for longer to ending car ownership, research shows 'less stuff and more joy' is the way forward."

TAKE THE JUMP suggests six changes we can all make to the way we live - or what they call six ‘shifts’ - to protect our earth.

These are to:

keep products, particularly electrical goods, for seven years or more
get rid of personal motor vehicles
eat a mostly plant-based diet and reduce food waste
buy only three new items of clothing each year and buy second hand and to repair rather than discard clothes
fly only once every three years or once every eight years if it's a long haul flight
move to green investments and pensions to force institutions to change "the system"

There is also the recommendation that families should move to green energy and insulate homes to help energy efficiency. Curiously, this is not one of the six shifts although, surely, this is crucial in every country in Europe if we are to meet a target to reduce energy consumption by two thirds by 2030.

The article highlights obvious problems with our current attitudes to consumption or, rather, our addiction to over consumption, in a society that replaces rather than repairs.

For an iPhone, 13% of emissions are from when it is used and 86% from production, transport and end of life processing.

Clothing and textile industries together produce more greenhouse gas than international aviation.

Transport is responsible for 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions and two-thirds of that is from the engines of road vehicles but the article also makes the important point that:

“…. although there is a lot of emphasis on the role of electric vehicles (EVs) in tackling climate change, a bigger effort needs to go towards reducing the number of cars on the road overall as a significant source of emissions is in the manufacture of vehicles – even EVs.”

The Jump campaign was co-founded by Tom Bailey and it's conclusions are based on extensive research from Leeds University, research by the C40 group of world cities and research undertaken by ARUP under Ben Smith, their director of climate change.

But, curiously, TAKE THE JUMP only goes as far as to suggest that people, for now, try these changes for a month or possibly for three months or 6 months although it concludes that everyone has to make these changes in the next ten years.

Big changes can start with small steps.

Six promises you can make to help carbon emissions
by Matthew Taylor, The Guardian, 7 March 2022

TAKE THE JUMP

❝ Our society is hooked on stuff and it’s destroying our planet. Often without even making our lives better. Another way is possible! Our goal is a world of less stuff and more joy, where humanity is in balance with nature - through helping achieve a two-thirds reduction in the impact of consumption in rich countries by 2030.❞

“Changing our behaviours around food is the most impactful of all the shifts. And it’s not just about climate change; if you look at biodiversity loss, land use change, fertilisers in the ocean creating dead zones and the massive extinction and loss of insects due to pesticides, these problems are all driven by food.”

Tom Bailey