Well, with just four days to go until Christmas Day is upon us and we all unwrap a bunch of presents we may or may not like (my wife is nice, I’m sure I’ll get something I want!) the last mad push towards the shops continue. I was out in Oxford Street, London yesterday and it was bedlam, I work close by and have to cross Oxford Street every day so it wasn’t if I was deliberately torturing myself with it, and I was wondering why on earth do we continue with this nonsense? Unless you do you Christmas shopping in November buying stuff, is just a pain. I know people just default this attitude to scrooge mentality, but come on it’s becoming a joke, along with the houses festooned with Christmas decorations, burning up electricity as if it was free! There are people who live in my street who spend the entirety of their lives on social security, no jobs, nothing who have spent thousands of pounds on the useless tat to make their houses look stupid. OK, they can spend their money on whatever they like, but this form of ‘showing off’ is not the spirit of Christmas, it is just a complete waste of money and a joke. I think the spirit of Christmas can be simplified, today I went to my local café to grab my usual breakfast of a couple of slices of toast and a tea, and today the owner said that it was a gift from him, saving me a couple of pound. A wonderful, appreciated gesture. That’s the spirit of Christmas, not buying or giving tonnes of pointless tat. What’s this inane rant got to do with an environmental blog? Well, it’s about consumerism, it’s about wasting resources for the sake of it, it’s about all the greedy things that make a modern day human being. Baa humbug to one and all!

The Greenpeace ‘Guide to Greener Electronics‘ has been released and gives a big slap to Nintendo for ‘being first global brand to score zero across all criteria’. You’d think you would have to go out of your way to score zero, so it’s a disappointing result for the company. At the other end of the scale Sony Ericson, Samsung and Sony are the top three this year, so for us eco-types it’s looking like we should be asking for a PlayStation 3 from Santa instead of a Wii. In all seriousness I would have liked a Wii but with all the banging on about consumerism I’ve been doing, and now hearing the eco-credentials of Nintendo it’s something I’m going to have to cross off the list. Shame.

When I look at all the environmental and social issues that I could possible highlight, you soon realize that it is daunting task, as there is so much to talk about, yet (for me) so little time to devote to it.

Certainly Green issues are at the forefront of people’s minds right now, with governments and large corporations embracing things like ‘carbon footprints’, recycling, climate change, etc. I do wonder how devoted these people really are? Presumably as pressure is put on them from the electorate or customers then they have to begrudgingly act even if it is just initially on a marketing level. For instance how much more bad publicity do supermarkets need before they stop wrapping their fruit and vegetables up like Christmas presents? They say that the customers prefer it, but do they really? If much of the packaging was reduced, how long would it take the customers to get used to it and accept it? After all, we all have to eat. I know I wouldn’t change my supermarket because they stopped wrapping stuff up in a ridiculous fashion, to just go to a supermarket which did wrap things up because I thought it looked better. That would be stupid. OK, there are a lot of stupid people out there, which is why I’m not a great fan of ‘health and safety’ advocates, but that’s a different article!

This brings us onto consumerism in general. I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to over consuming, buying too much, buying stuff I do not need, not recycling enough. I am guilty as 95% of the first world is guilty. I’m trying to be better and I’m actively working to reduce my consumerism by just thinking more about what I do and do not really need. I think the talk of carbon footprints are admirable, but not a lot of use to Joe Public. Who honestly knows if 10 tonnes of carbon is good or bad? I do know, but only because I’m informed. I prefer to think about small things we can all do, which do not make much of a difference to an individual, but when everyone does it, a difference can be made.

In my line of work I occasionally get sent ‘gifts’ in the post from companies. One company who is giving it the big ‘I am’ when it comes to the environment sent me a corporate gift last year. It was an unnecessary corporate gift, (as mostly they are) a digital photo-frame. Yes, a funky toy from a marketing department and even though I don’t particularly hold any animosity to the company or marketer who sent this out, I did think that it was a particularly pointless, in fact worse than pointless gift. Digital Photo frames burn up electricity and offer us no particular benefit. Dreadful.

I can see the benefit of computers, fridges, washing machines and technology like that, although all could be deemed unnecessary by the eccentric eco campaigner. Anyway, I’m not really about going that far because I do not believe people are ready for that level of change. It is better to stick with the tiny, insignificant things that can and do make a difference, which we can all be a part of. You’ve heard them before but I will say it again. When a lightbulb pops replace it with an energy efficient one. Turn the TV off at night, don’t leave it on standby. Turn the heating down a degree, buy less stuff. Talking of which, it is ‘buy nothing day’ tomorrow, so maybe give it a go?