The Safari's household used the following last year
3428 kWh of electricity (oven and shower are electric), our
target was 3450...phew just hit it. Our energy supplier guesstimated 3620 so we
were well within that.
CO2 emissions = 0.735 tonnes (1/2 share of 1.47t)
11,375 kWh of gas, our target was 10,750, missed it by only 625 so
pretty close. Think it was mainly due to all the damp wet weather in the second
half of the year meaning the heating was on not to provide warmth but to
prevent condensation from all the wet weather gear being brought in to the
house and all the clothes drying that couldn’t be done outside.
CO2 emissions = 0.96 t
Little Bertha got through about 100kgs of coal to help get the
wood burning. No idea how much weight of dry wood we’ve used; say a tonne, all
of which was waste wood that would have gone to landfill or prunings/logs from
Dutch Elm Diseased trees.
CO2 emissions 0.25t (coal) + ~1.05t (wood) = 0.65t
120 litres of water/day (not metered), about 20% below the
national average (but still too much), which you’d probably expect with only
two of us in the house.
The Land Rover traveled a little over 5000 miles using
roughly 1250 litres of diesel.
Most of that mileage was commuting to and from work.
CO2 emissions = 3.375t
Our ~20,000 mile flight to and from Australia
had ‘personal’ CO2 emissions of 3.33t (good job both flights were full to
busting). There is some research to suggest that at altitude CO2 is twice as
effective as a greenhouse gas than at sea-level but for the time being we’ll
stick with the three+ tons.
So doing the sums our Carbon Footprint last year was a
whopping and hardly sustainable 9.38t and that doesn’t include any emissions from food
we buy or the waste we produce.
So how are we going to improve for 2013.
For a start there won’t be a flight to Australia
:-( or anywhere else probably.
Our targets are:-
Electricity – 3300 kWh, could be tough but with better
weather (fingers crossed) the tumble drier won’t be on so much. Shorter showers
will help as will a reduction in the amount of oven cooking we do, if we can manage that last one.
Gas – 10,500 kWh, again could be tough and is very dependent
on how cold and/or wet 2013 turns out to be. Run out of things to insulate
apart from under the floor which is tricky as water runs down the hill under the
house and anything that inhibits ventilation could cause the joists and
floorboards to rot.
Little Bertha will most likely use about the same amount of
wood and we have a nice supply coming up which should be dry by next winter,
certainly a good few Land Rover-fulls to bring in from the wilds.
Water useage could be reduced a little by having shorter
showers and using the washing up bowl more, although the dishwasher is always
full and on ‘eco’ setting’ when we do use it. Our duff hands make washing up a
bit of a dropsy nightmare particularly with heavy pans.
Land Rover use will be about the same with a target mileage
of 5-6000 miles...we reckon at least ¼ of our fuel is wasted being stuck behind
other people going too slow!
Food – we are going to try to eat at least one veggie meal a
week to cut down on methane production from animal farming – had a couple of
very tasty veggie meals in the last week. We are also going to try, despite the
current economic climate, to buy ethically whenever possible so that's organic, local, wildlife friendly, fairtrade etc.
Waste – we loathe it can't believe the amount of rubbish people put in their bins ours usually only has a half full black bag every fortnight and we think that's too much! Will become more political eg writing to
Sainsbugs asking why their pizza has a plastic tray that can’t be burnt,
composted or recycled, other pizzas have perfectly functional card trays maybe
we should chose those but it would still leave others to buy the ones with a
plastic tray who would probably be unlikely to complain. BTW the Spinach and
Ricotta pizza is highly recommended.
With all the waste paper we get at work we’re looking at
ways of making logs for Little Bertha from it, without having to soak it and
then dry it again – anyone know any good products out there, the reusable metal
rings sound about the best.
Being political is going to be high on the agenda as we plan to make a nuisance of ourselves with our MP and MEPs until we get some positive action from Central Government for sustainability and wildlife...not going to be easy as we've just read of the impending doom; the 'greenest government ever' announcing the likely end of Natural England...unbelievable but not unexpected...poor, very very poor! In fact well beyond poor.
On a lighter note...on with the 'important' business of listing. Patch 2 was a gloomy, choppy affair with little happening. But it did give us a few Common Scoter (61), distant Oystercatchers (62) and about 70 Sanderlings (63), exactly a dozen Turnstones (64). A stroll round the gardens gave us over 30 House Sparrows (65) in two flocks one on either side of the grounds. Back out on Patch 2 at lunchtime a single Redshank (66) was roosting on the wall with the Turnstones.
So the day ended with 16 on the Patch 2 list, things are progressing along nicely.
Here's a couple of dodgy shots of one of the Long Eared Owls taken last Sunday with the sunlight shining through its plumage...still very dark in the shrubs though.
Both pics salvaged off the camera's internal memory.
WARNING - the following contains some material not suitable for the feint-hearted...
We watched Africa on the BEEB last night and found it to most very excellent...we really like Giraffes, after Numbats they are one of our must see bucket list species. We'd love to go and see them in the wild and seeing the Kalahari in all its glory last night got us to wondering if we did right turning down the opportunity offered by the Beeb a couple of years ago when we were invited to be a participant on the Nick Knowles wildlife filming reality show.
Never thought we end up wearing one!
We don't in any shape or form condone the wearing of real animal skins unless in or for exceptional circumstances, 'fashion' accessories for the 'Chelsea' set are deffo NOT included in those exceptions.
Where to next? More Patch 2 safari-ing and hopefully viewing conditions will be a bit better.
In the meantime let us know who's wearing wot onesie in your outback
3 comments:
Well Dave, I think that last photo has rendered us speechless. That outfit should help you sneak up on the wildlife though.
Your brains be busy working all that out Dave. Good on ya.
BTW - you`ve got some bottle showing us that last photo :)
Thank goodness the kitchen was fairly tidy!
Frank looks bemused don't you think?
Cheers
D
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