With bonfire night almost upon us – and with it a feeling of crushing ecological terror – let’s turn for reassurance to the pages of a certain newspaper. A troubled Guardian reader asks,
Setting light to bonfires and sending fireworks up into the sky don’t strike me as very environmentally friendly. Is there a better way to mark bonfire night?
Mercifully, Leo Hickman has some thoughts.
Attend an organised public display instead of setting off fireworks yourself in your own backyard. Surely it’s better to contain the noise and pollution in one area than see it dispersed across a wider area?
This fairly innocuous suggestion leads Mr Hickman to more emphatic, and revealing, territory:
Quite why fireworks are not just restricted to organised public events has always been beyond me, given how dangerous they can be to children. Or maybe – as was fiercely debated on this site last year – fireworks should be banned altogether?
An earlier Guardian poll – Should Fireworks be Banned on Environmental Grounds? – was a close-run thing, with a narrow majority willing to permit an evening of explosive hedonism. The Guardian’s Felicity Carus suggested a possible compromise in the form of “green fireworks,” a quieter, less colourful, less explosive alternative made from sawdust and rice chaff.
As regulars will know, Mr Hickman and his colleague Lucy Siegle steer Guardianistas through the labyrinth of modern living with their Ask Leo & Lucy column – “your ethical dilemmas sorted.” Dilemmas that, for Guardian readers, include, Should I Employ a Cleaner? (“If you employ a cleaner, their pay should be fair. Buy some less toxic cleaning products or make them yourself using ingredients such as vinegar, lemon juice or vegetable-based soap.”) Among many other agonies of note are, What’s the Greenest Way to Wrap my Sandwiches? and What Should I Do with the Fur Coats I Inherited from my Mother? (Since you ask, suggestions range from the inventive – “donate them to an animal sanctuary that uses them as bedding for abandoned puppies” – to the slightly surreal – “Turn the central heating down and wear them indoors.” And, “Use them in the home, where everyone understands their history etc.”)
Mr Hickman, whose radical credentials have impressed us previously, is also the author of A Life Stripped Bare: My Year Trying to Live Ethically, the cover of which displays the Guardian’s eco-gnome denuded and brandishing his veg box. Positioned to the right of Mr Hickman’s shirtless torso is an approving comment by Radio 4’s Libby Purves:
Very entertaining.
Full of useful new things to fret about.
The Observer’s Carol McDaid was equally thrilled:
There are plenty of facts – Quaker Oats and Tropicana juices are both owned by George Bush-backing PepsiCo – and a selection of helpful letters, like the inspiring one from a woman who crochets her own dishcloths.
An essential purchase, clearly.
“What Should I Do with the Fur Coats I Inherited from my Mother?” is, surely, the archetypal Guardianista ethical dilemma…
“the cover of which displays the Guardian’s eco-gnome denuded and brandishing his veg box.”
Is there some way I can un-see that? I have money.
btw – a classic Guardian reader comment:
“There should be a single National Bonfire and fireworks – Hyde Park in London could be the site. Elsewhere in the country people can gather in their local park and share the experience on giant video screens. This would save a lot of firewood.”
Eugenides lives! We are honoured.
Well, that’s MY Christmas present shopping list done!
And an added attraction, I’ll no doubt have even fewer friends to buy for next year….
” Elsewhere in the country people can gather in their local park and share the experience on giant video screens.”
Because in Guardianland, giant video screens run on pixiedust and the tears of capitalists, not electricity. And everyone will walk to their local park, rather than drive…
“Similarly, there has long been talk of child labour and dangerous working conditions blighting the manufacture of fireworks in China. Does that automatically make UK-produced fireworks a more “ethical” purchase?”
And those Chinese workers will be better off without jobs anyway.
*sigh*
Right on cue:
Lambeth Council bans sparklers –> http://is.gd/gHZlH
It’s getting to the point where we will just have to build our own fireworks.
I recall that Hobbies Weekly for September 1938 tells you how: how much black powder to buy from your local ironmonger (about a shilling’s worth is good), what the relative merits of iron filings or magnesium millings are, how to roll the tight-newspsper bodies and what to stuff the ends with before lighting, etc.
”
It’s getting to the point where we will just have to build our own fireworks.
”
Yup. Piles of tires. Burning hopping-trollies rolling down hills or into subway-entrances. Shotgun-cartridges merrily exploding among our betters.
Yes, home-made fireworks it will have to be….
-S
I used to think that ‘The Modern Parents’ was satire.
http://www.tfheaven.free-online.co.uk/modernparents.jpg
“There has been talk for a number of years about fireworks propelled with compressed air as a greener option.”
I think he’s missing the whole point of bonfire night and fireworks. Noise, smell, smoke and danger.
Now he’s suggesting we use ‘simulated’ fireworks (i.e. lights).
http://www.festive-lights.com/commercial-lights/outdoor-giant-firework-light-6-metre.html
Only £1,999.95 each!
Fur wearing hate… aaagh!
I despise our elites when they pontificate on what is good or not good about what we should do or shouldn’t even think about. For example, the matter of wearing fur coats: the perfect angst for our correctly regimented minders to froth about. Well, here’s a story: my ex-wife inherited a fur coat that her great-grandmother had worn. It was warm and still fashionable and even better it had lasted for over a century. In short, it owed nobody anything. I admit the animals were long dead but the coat would have outlasted any number of conventional coats.
However my then wife did not dare wear it lest it cause outrage among others ‘who know things’. Not only did the coat beat any modern fabric it was the epitome of conserving resources. But she couldn’t face the hatred she would get for being sensible and wearing it out…
The problem with so called Earth friendly products like Ecover is they are crap. You end up using 4 times as much and even then they don’t work.
I’m sure that if I could afford a cleaner, the last thing I would do is tell them how to do their job. I would not force them to use a particular cleaning product just because it made me feel better. How ethical is it to employ a cleaner and then force them to use a rubbish product that relies on muscle power for its efficacy?
I’d have thought that the carbon wasted in printing and distributing The Guardian was bad for the environment as well, perhaps we should ban that instead, as a single Fireworks Night more than makes up for the deluge of sh*t that paper generates.
“…My year trying to live ethically”
So, now you can write a book about TRYING to be an ethical person for ONE YEAR? Has there ever been a more unintentionally revealing book title?
Yes, I know his definition of “ethical” is specific to some eco-cult context, but he is a writer by trade, and words have meaning.
Moreover, I believe that people on the far left do not accept the notion of either a soul or innate goodness among men — thus, they attach themselves to vague “global” causes in an effort to emulate human empathy…driven always by their own sense of self-importance and need for public recognition.
Every year, I celebrate Al Gore’s birthday by burning a tire.