Harry Eyres writes the "Slow Lane" column in the Financial Times' Weekend edition. Anyone extolling the virtues of the quiet life is generally my kind of person, but I've become particularly fond of Eyres' column lately.
The following is an excerpt from his latest piece, "Ah, Green Sunday":
Surreptitiously, without any formal announcement, some time in the late 1970s or early 1980s, Sunday was abolished. The day remained on the calendar, of course, but it was transformed from a day of rest, or boredom, into a day of shopping and driving, getting and spending. The time has come to reverse this process.
That, at least, is the refreshingly heretical view of my friend Satish Kumar, former Jain monk and editor of the bimonthly ecological magazine Resurgence. In a letter to me Satish comments that most of the proposals to counter global warming suggested in Sir Nicholas Stern's review are technological and long-term.
We can't immediately switch to renewables or hydrogen. But there is one thing we could do immediately: we could "declare Sunday to be a fossil-fuel free day or at least an energy-saving day". Sunday could be once again "a day of rest, a day of spiritual renewal, a day for families to come together". In the process, we could save one-seventh of our carbon emissions.
Read on at the link above, and enjoy.
The following is an excerpt from his latest piece, "Ah, Green Sunday":
Surreptitiously, without any formal announcement, some time in the late 1970s or early 1980s, Sunday was abolished. The day remained on the calendar, of course, but it was transformed from a day of rest, or boredom, into a day of shopping and driving, getting and spending. The time has come to reverse this process.
That, at least, is the refreshingly heretical view of my friend Satish Kumar, former Jain monk and editor of the bimonthly ecological magazine Resurgence. In a letter to me Satish comments that most of the proposals to counter global warming suggested in Sir Nicholas Stern's review are technological and long-term.
We can't immediately switch to renewables or hydrogen. But there is one thing we could do immediately: we could "declare Sunday to be a fossil-fuel free day or at least an energy-saving day". Sunday could be once again "a day of rest, a day of spiritual renewal, a day for families to come together". In the process, we could save one-seventh of our carbon emissions.
Read on at the link above, and enjoy.