Bitterjug’s blog

“My mum died four years ago and I have already thrown away all the jumpers she knitted for me.”
So begins an old blog entry I found today, loitering in the drafts folder since November last year. I’m publishing it now, unfinished (see the last paragraph), exactly as I found it. I think it speaks to [...]

Despite the greenwash, Tetrapaks are made from a three-part composite of cardboard, polyethylene plastic and aluminum foil. The cardboard fiber can be separated for reuse in paper products and, I’ve read, there are some limited uses for the resulting aluminum-polyethylene mixture. And it takes energy to separate them. A quick scan of the web today [...]

Here’s an interesting and informative video about what choices we make regarding the possibility of global catastrophes within our lifetime.

Got ten minutes? Watch it.
Not got ten minutes? What the hell are you doing reading my blog? The only possible reason you don’t have ten minutes to inform yourself about the most important choice you ever [...]

A while back I posted an entry here about home-cooked Kenyan maize dish called Ugali and how this had given me a sense of connection with my time in Kenya. Well today I’m celebrating the fact that this photo (which I published on Flickr under a Creative Commons licence that allows it to be reused [...]

I think it’s a great idea to use a web site, influding a Facebook page, to petition the Prime Minister to make an address to the nation on Climate Change. Whether or not you believe that politicans are able and wiling to make a difference, I believe it will bring the debate to the attention [...]

After an hour or so, I found myself among those preparing porridge and tea for the campers who had remained in line matching the police cordon. As I think about it again now, I am struck by the potential of a standoff like this, between campers and the police, to meet many needs

Is climate camp, perhaps, dependent on the police? Would it be as effective without them? Effective as a media phenomenon? Effective as a demonstration of solidarity and self-organization for sustainable living?

After a couple of days of re-sealing tent seams and adjusting the gears on my bike, the bike-trailer is full of sleeping bags and mats and the packed lunch is ready. Bitterjug is cycling to climate camp, leaving in three hours time.

Despite my recent challenge to self to do something about the state of the planet, I neither wrote here what it was that I wanted to do; and neither, in fact, have I done it. What’s that all about?