Greyhounds

I’ve been reading Heat by George Monbiot – the book that defies you to read it and not to want to make a change. In fact, in the conclusion he tells the reader to return the book & ask for a refund if it doesn’t make you want to make a difference. Well, it did, though perhaps he was preaching to the converted. There were a number of areas where I was really impressed, notably about the conservation of energy in the home (some real areas for me to think about there) and also about the public transport system, which I’ve long been frustrated by, particularly with it being cheaper (and arguably more pleasant) to drive somewhere in the car, compared to public transport. However, public transport, always the preserve of the desperately poor (esp in the USA, where the Greyhound was an entertaining insight into the impoverished classes and the mentally unstable drifters of the west coast, but one I wouldn’t want to spend too much time indulging in) is really the way forward, so something I really want to push on. There was a (surprisingly small) section at the back of the book, of organisations committed to tackling climate change, so I’ll have to look further in to it. The one area where Monbiot claims to fail is air transport, and I have to say this is a difficult area, even for us, who take one short-haul flight per year, to see the relatives in Ireland. Having tried once by car & ferry, when Daughter Number 1 was very small, I’m in no hurry to do it again. The ferry part was wonderful – the cabin was comfortable and really quite elegant, but the car journey, with a less-than-one year old who screamed from leaving the house at six o’clock in the evening, and only stopped when we rolled down the ramp into the ferry some six hours later, just in time to unload her from the car into the cabin – was a nightmare. I suspect the only way to do it, especially now with two littlies, would be to either hire a bigger car (or buy one if our current car dies a death soon!) or go by the dreaded public transport. With the amount of stuff we have to cart around for two weeks with the rellies is anything to go by, it’ll be a while before I’m brave enough to do that.