House in Sheffield

Good. Double glazing, draught proofing, loft insulation.

Chastleton House, Oxon

Bad. Mullioned windows - very poor energy conservation. Other examples of energy inefficient buildings - King's College Chapel, Cambridge, York Minster, Chartres Cathedral (large areas of stained glass - not double glazed.)

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A Confession

I own a vehicle - a van. I do generally try to follow green principles. Green issues are an interest of mine, but I see the need for criticism. A long time ago, a series of books was published which included 'Objections to Christianity,' written by various Christians, and 'Objections to Roman Catholicism,' by various Roman Catholics. I offer this page in the same spirit.

Personal transport

I haven't flown anywhere for over thirty years. When I travelled to Krakow in Poland not so long ago, I took the coach. The journey lasted just over 24 hours, and was no hardship. When I went to Athens, I took the train, a journey of 3 days, and when I went to Oslo, again I took the train, a journey of well over 2 days. I have a van, the use of which I can justify. When I was working, I had a car but never used it for the last few years there. I walked to and from work instead. As I learned to drive at the age of 40, I've walked far more, and made far more use of public transport, than many people (although, it's true, less than many others.)

Food transport and food miles

I have two allotments and grow a large proportion of my own food. I'm self-sufficient or almost self-sufficient in perhaps most fruit and vegetables. The transportation of these amounts to far less than a food mile - a few hundred metres from the allotments. I never buy imported foods, except for coffee and, occasionally, tomato products.

Reduction of packaging for food products

I never buy processed foods, except, occasionally, for tomato products: no cans of baked beans, no breakfast cereals, none of those things. I don't buy take-aways. Cooking is a significant interest. If I want to eat a pizza, I make it from the usual ingredients, flour and the rest. I never have any tins to dispose of, and very few cardboard boxes which need to be recycled. I brew beer in bulk and store it in bulk, avoiding the energy costs and pollution costs of manufacturing cans and bottles.

Recycling and composting

My paper, glass and metal waste is in small amounts. It's recycled, of course. I have four compost bins containing allotment waste at different stages of breakdown. I don't compost food waste because of the risks, but the amounts are negligible.

Lighting and heating

All my light bulbs are long-life and low-energy. I make sure that I wear enough indoors and the house is never over-heated. I don't have central heating.

The limitations of green thinking

Green thinking which recognizes its limitations and is modest in its claims isn't my intended target here.

Preliminary level and fuller level

I distinguish the preliminary level from the fuller level. Recycling, energy conservation, avoidance of waste - these and other green practices are important but insufficient, important but not all important. They belong to the preliminary level.

We visit a theatre, and find that it separates its waste water, so that 'grey' water isn't discharged into the sewers and wasted. Its energy conservation meets the highest contemporary standards. It's so well insulated that very little supplementary heating is needed. We visit a library, and it's exemplary too. But exemplary in what way? Exemplary in meeting green standards. Exemplary in its stock? That's a different matter altogether. The green activist in the role of activist isn't concerned in the least whether the stock is poor, insufficient and rubbishy. The activist isn't concerned in the least whether the theatre is adventurous or unadventurous. If it plays safe and puts on rubbish that at least is successful at the box-office, then it's a matter of no concern to the activist, in the role of activist. The same with a concert hall which programmes nothing but single movements and parts of movements from hackneyed works, and never ever takes a risk. But libraries, theatres and concert halls are like athletics stadiums and football stadiums in one way at least - strenuous activities, not lazy activities, should take place in them, even if there's a need for relaxation as well. The most important activities of a library, theatre or concert hall aren't at the preliminary level at all, but at the fuller level.

An analogy. Ensuring that women and ethnic minorities have access to posts of responsibility is important, but it belongs to the preliminary level. Once the Supreme Court of the United States has an acceptable number of women and people from ethnic minorities, then the egalitarian activist is content. Anyone concerned with the fuller level can't possibly be content. The distinctive work of the Supreme Court belongs to the fuller level. Are the justices deciding fairly, justly, humanely? To focus attention on just one issue, the abolition of the juvenile death penalty in the United States. This has now been abolished. Offenders found guilty of murder who were below the age of eighteen at the time of the offence can't be executed. Before this, the United States was amongst a handful of countries that allowed the execution of juvenile offenders. They included Somalia and Iran. Of the members of the Supreme Court who voted for the continuing execution of juvenile offenders, there was a woman, Sandra Day O' Connor, a black, Clarence Thomas, as well as the unspeakable Renquist and Scalia, white males. This isn't evidence that women and blacks can be just as unenlightened as white males but a demonstration that 'equal opportunities' belong purely to the preliminary level.

It's far easier to judge a book's environmental credentials than its content. Is it printed on recycled paper or unrecycled paper. It's easy to find out and approval or disapproval is mechanical. There's no mechanical method of estimating the book's content. Is the style hackneyed or cliched, is it emotionally sincere or not, are there logical errors or errors of fact - these and other questions make vastly greater demands.

This discussion hasn't so far presented the matter as starkly as it should. It has presented the preliminary level as an important stage in its own right, whilst pointing out that the green activist isn't concerned with the fuller level, or unconcerned in the role of activist. The preliminary level isn't necessarily a precondition. Magnificent works of art, to focus attention upon only one sphere of achievement, were created and presented under social conditions which were abysmal. They can certainly be created and presented in conditions which don't meet the best contemporary standards of regards recycling, reusing and the rest.

The most important issue of our age isn't climate change but the descent into moronic and mediocre ways of life and ways of thinking.

In actual fact, feeding moronic ways of living, ways of thinking, ways of experiencing the world, consumes vast amounts of the earth's resources. Industrial methods, apart from making products that are useful and essential, are also capable of churning out vast amounts of low-grade articles of commerce, including reading-matter and viewing-matter.

Words of a language can be used polemically. The use of green to mean 'immature, unsophisticated, or gullible' has become less common. Its use to mean 'enlightened as regards recycling, reusing and the conservation of the earth's resources in general' has become very much more common, of course, the most common meaning of the word now, together with its use for a colour. I see every reason for restoring the less common meaning, as a useful reminder to green-thinking people.

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The battery cage

Modern civilization, with achievements beyond praise, has its dirty secrets and its horrors. One of them is the battery cage system, suppliers of eggs to most schools and hospitals and other public and private institutions in the country. This is a reminder of a notorious contrast: that between the astonishing cultural and intellectual achievements of Athenian democracy in its Golden Age and the slaves who were worked to death in its silver mines.

It would be a very unusual green-thinking person who bought battery chicken eggs. Less unusual is to overlook battery chicken eggs in convenience foods and take-away foods. The Green Party has enlightened policies on animal welfare. All the same, policies are not enough. To attend to one thing is not to attend to others. To devote to a cause the time and energy needed to have a chance of success is difficult. There's evidence that many green activists and politicians fail to give enough attention to this matter of animal welfare. It is, after all, primarily a matter of animal welfare. To act against the battery cage on purely environmental grounds (issues to do with feeding fishmeal or soya meal, for instance) would be to overlook the central point: that this is a moral issue, to do with the infliction of suffering, the denial of the chance to exercise instincts.

Councils throughout the country have never been more concerned with reducing, reusing and recycling, but most of them have done nothing about the cruelty inflicted by their purchasing policies.A large proportion of Councillors are concerned about recycling and the other green issues. The proportion shocked by the fact that free-range eggs aren't used in Council canteens is far, far smaller. Awareness of green issues can go hand in hand with indifference to disgusting cruelty.

A long time ago, I organized a campaign to persuade the Council of this city, Sheffield, to abandon its support for factory farming, including the purchase of battery chicken eggs. I wrote to every Councillor, and received two or three replies. I very much doubt if Councillors are much more receptive now.

Compare and contrast a backward Council with Microsoft. From 'Farm Animal Voice,' published by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF):

'Microsoft UK's Head of Facilities and Property, Nicholas Willis, was shocked to realise that his company was not using free-range eggs in its canteens.

'When CIWF called him to check on their policy, he was sure they were already cage-free. But after making all the necessary enquiries he realised they weren't and quickly set about rectifying things.

'It is so refreshing to see animal welfare being taken seriously by a company that isn't directly connected with the food industry.'

(My stance here - not at all 'sweetly reasonable' - wouldn't necessarily be endorsed by Compassion in World Farming. Almost certainly it wouldn't be.)