I was just doing my usual lunchtime reading of the UK's Daily Telegraph - thank my lucky stars for the internet - and I came across an interesting article in it today about clearing our conscience of nappy guilt. But before you click on the link below to the article, please read on:
We're talking here about the disposable kind that takes half a millenium to decompose, so that if there had been disposables nappies in the time of Henry VIII, then we could safely conclude that his royal nappies would have just about fully decomposed by now... Phew - to think that his smell would have been lingering all this time would make my bones shudder while sitting on the throne!
With millions of us parents using these dreadful disposables, I could reckon, we have generated enough to make a mountain higher than Everest... whoa, what a stench that would make huh!
Anyway, about that article, it says if we plant 7 trees, it will remove the same amount of greenhouse gas as would be generated by a baby wearing disposable nappies for 2½ years.
So folks, if you're planning on adding some tiny patters to your family, you need to plant 7 trees for every baby critter you give birth to at a cost of £1.43 per tree ($2.64), and you then can salve your precious conscience!
As an alternative, you could opt for towel nappies, but if you do, you'll have to wash'em by hand, because the electricity consumed by a washing machine to wash those towel nappies, will give almost the same contribution in greenhouse gases.
Sadly, nappies are the least of our problems, when it comes to greenhouse gases...
Aeroplanes and cars are very big greenhouse gas culprits too. The article showed an interesting diagram to illustrate how many trees we each individually need to plant to compensate for the greenhouse gas created by our indulgences.
Here's the diagram:
The round trip flight to Orlando by the way is from the UK.
Anyways, I sat down and calculated just how many trees I would need to plant, to compensate for my indulgent living of using cars, taxis and planes during my working lifetime:
Cars and taxis at 12,000 miles per year for 40 years = 1520 trees
Planes; For my work I do about six long haul flights a year + say about another 6 short haul flights, so let's say one round trip to orlando = 1 long haul flight and half a round trip to orlando for one short haul flight.
That's equal to 9 round trip flights to orlando a year at let's say for 40 years = 5760 trees
For good measure, I should add another 1000 trees, to compensate for my indulgent use of electricity; for washing machines, hot baths and showers, tv, laptop, various DIY tools etc,.
That's a grand total of 8260 trees required to clear my wee sensitive conscience of guilt at a cost of £6,738 ($12,466).
THAT'S A GREAT BIG BLOODY FOREST!! It's time to live on the Moon man!
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