The BBC series Blue Planet II drew dramatic attention to the damage being done to the environment by plastics.
The response to the programme and much news coverage has seen the use of plastics begin to drop, as people look to use other degradable or reusable material instead.
One of the beneficiaries has been the traditional milk round, the milk man or woman has suddenly become in demand as people return to reusable glass bottles. A number of milk rounds across the land have reported a sudden growth in people using their services.
There have also been moves stop using plastic straws in cafes and coffee shops. Some shops are putting in water taps so that people can fill up their bottles. The consciousness of a need to live a more simple, less destructive, life has suddenly dawned.
This move toward a more environmentally friendly way of living, at one with the planet, is most welcome. It is line with the writings of environmentalists Wendell Berry and Paul Kingsnorth, who both call for a return to more traditional ways of living that are in harmony, rather than in conflict, with the earth.
Kingsnorth moved with his family to Ireland a few years ago, where he works a small holding. Berry, who lives in Kentucky, also puts the basic principles of respect for the earth into practice. He has been working the soil and writing about the subject for more than 50 years. His most recent book: The World Ending Fire is made up of a compilation of articles going back to the 1960s – the prophetic nature of which ring ever truer today.
In England, Ed and Barbara Echlin take a similar approach to life in Bexhill, Sussex.
The developments on plastic mark a move in the direction of a sustainable planet. Other initiatives of a similar kind are those to reduce car emissions. In the last column, I gave the example of Beal School in east London that has succeeded in reducing car journeys to and from school, whilst also increasing walking.
Some might regard these developments as almost back to the future. This maybe true but the moves are positive. We can wonder at a world that has gone from children routinely walking to school to one where so many go by car.
It has been the excesses of the consumer society that have caused so many of the problems we now have in the modern world.
Climate change and pollution are two obvious results of the consumer society and the uncontrolled neo-liberal market economy.
In his book, Confessions of a recovering environmentalist, Kingsnorth questions the whole concept of progress, which has come to run in tandum with destroying the planet over recent times.
Ofcourse it would be wrong to think that all that is needed to put things right is to go backwards. Many hanker to return to a past mythical time when they believe all was right with the world. This though is wrong, there are things that have been lost during our relentless pursuit of material wealth. These things need to be addressed and put right, but that is not to say that returning to past decades would be good for us all.
There was much abuse of different types going on in those days. There is no bygone golden age.
What we do need is to reconnect with the earth and our own humanity. This means respecting each other and God’s creation. A move to a world of mutual respect and thriving, rather than competitive, often self-destructive, development
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