The SNJ’s new columnist Karen Eberhardt-Shelton was born in California but grew up in England.

 

She now lives in Stroud and is currently working on an education project called Learn, Think, Act and is hoping to develop an eco-community land trust.

Her thought-provoking columns will focus on how we all have to take responsibility for our actions and for our planet.

HOW sneaky money is!

I get the impression that because Christmas boosts sales, shops will do their best to bring the money in the door, even if that means letting the heat go out.

I don’t keep track of which shops have their doors open, but if I enter to buy something I can’t help but notice.

Like Holland & Barratt when I popped in to check their aloe vera – door open.

Why? I asked.

The nice man in charge said it was head office policy.

“It’s more or less the middle of winter and you’re sending heated air out to play in the cold. You wouldn’t leave the front door of your house gaping like that. I won’t shop here again if you leave your doors open,” I said.

He quietly asked me to close it.

A couple of other places I challenged said open doors made things easier for customers to come and go.

Huh? There it is again; such an irrational approach put into practice for the sake of the purse.

When it’s cold, you turn on the heating and keep doors and windows shut. Simple.

Allowing warmth to escape in winter is like leaving the tap running or letting your car engine idle while you read a book.

Is it so hard to think beyond the small stuff and get real about what really matters – in spite of jingling bells and red-nosed reindeer?

It seems at Christmas, especially, most concern for air pollution, wasted fuel, climate change and conserving resources completely evaporates or maybe just turns into melted frost. Year after year, hardly anything is remodelled to reflect the rather grim realities of our current world. We do the usual, walk the same path, wait for the right moment to buy a dead turkey, repeat the process of adhering to all the usual adornments that accompany this celebratory time. It has to do with the “availability bias” – you decide what to do on the basis of what is most readily to hand.

As George Marshall says in his great new book, Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired To Ignore Climate Change – “the most pervasive narrative of all is the collective social norm of Silence”.

He emphasises that climate change is happening NOW and it’s important to remember that “How we respond now will provide the template for future responses”, and we need to “recognise the role of our own emissions”, even while making plum puddings and hanging tinsel on the fake tree.

The potential for disaster seems remote when the church bells are ringing and a local choir is singing Silent Night.

But turn your engine off while waiting for Susie to come back with the cranberries.