Funny thing is after I sent this I went for a walk around the park and a wee girl of about three said earnestly to her father as I passed, “there’s Santa daddy.”
There’s a few more unnecessary happenings we could well do without. Nick, if you think you’re a grinch, please read on.
All motor sports should be banned, not only for the emissions produced during events but also those produced freighting vehicles to and from, thousands of team members, fans and other hangers-on who want to be part of the action.
The global fashion industry is right up there as well. It’s already been deemed responsible for around 10% of greenhouse gas emissions annually. For what?! The waste caused by the demands for keeping up with the latest trends, just as with every new shiny phone that comes out, is measured in tens of thousands of tonnes daily. Products just thrown away because the latest designers have told us what we must have and wear.
It’s one of the least sustainable unnecessary industries there is. I’m known for living in Levi’s and T shirts. I’ve done it for the last 60 years or so and am never out of fashion.
Cruise ships are next on the list. Much is said about how wonderful it is to relax and be waited upon as we sail across the seven seas. These leviathans produce more noxious emissions than virtually any other form of transportation, including the much more visible aviation industry. Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fossil fuels each day are required to drive these floating pollutant
factories, causing havoc above and below the waterline.
Speaking of which… yes, go for a swim but be careful where you go. It seems there’s an over abundance of great white sharks around the coast, and who knows what sort of shit happens in Wayne’s Brown Pool so I suggest you get to know the neighbours who have pools, stay home, enjoy your retro wardrobe offerings, leave the car in the garage and help save our planet😀😀
Correct on all of the above Jeremy. I love fashion but must admit I'm thinking twice lately. As for those bloody cruise ships. People will soon (hopefully) be ashamed to admit that they have been on a cruise. As for motor sport.......I'm so glad someone has also said what I've been saying for ever. Of course it won't happen thanks to the huge amount of money involved. Jeepers I'm a real old grinch!
The fashion I really don’t like is that produced for events such as the Oscars, The Met, Emmys, and all the other glitzy occasions where clothes that collectively cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, to be worn once and never seen again, mainly by vacuous people who “ care very deeply about climate change, ecosystems, whales, kittens,blah blah”. Utterly disgraceful displays of excess and egotism in a world which can’t afford to sustain them.
Fear not, Cheryl, you’re not the only old grinch around. We’re all just keeping a low profile so we don’t get reviled by those who can’t or won’t see what really matters in our increasingly greedy, uncaring world.
When we lived in and travelled in our motorhome for 5 years, we discovered three things. 1 Is this what we need in the motorhome?
Will it stand the buffeting and bouncing around?
How can we off-set?
The piles of "must haves" shrank considerably when we put them through that sieve.
We added other things. A half sized broom and long handled shovel, a filtered water glass bottle 10L, a spare chilly bin for in the shower with a soaking product and water for flannels and smalls, which had 'soak bucket' written on top.
We invested in 3 buckets in which we planted herbs spring onions and picking lettuce. they were the first things put outside at any camp, and the marigolds or polyanthus were added for colour and insect repellent, and invited comment.
We learned to live simply. Another chilly bin with a bag of ice kept vegetables and greens cool and fresh 3 to 4 days at a time, while our fridge was full of aluminium trays to create cool pools of air which stopped all the cool air dropping out when the door was opened. We would put small bags of ice in each tray. this assisted the 'fridge against too much draw down on the battery.
We planned our main travel to do three things, see NZ, visit friends and rellies, and stay with my Mum Billie every six weeks for a week or more. Our unit in Rotorua was let out and managed by a real estate firm. Our Christmas times were always with my Mum, the New Year with friends.
It was a time when the travel club we belonged to had the mantra, "Leave only Footprints", this we realised had been spoiled when this type of travel was promoted during the Rugby World Cup. The people using those vans were out for a good time, not to "leave only footprints."
So yes, when something is commercialised for gain, environmental concerns go out the window, and we have so many money making promotions every year. Christmas Easter Birthdays Mother's Day Father's day on and on. All of them heating the planet. We now share time and have learned to reuse and keep things simple, making family and friends the center of the celebration.
Wonderful writing Nick, full of laugh out loud moments and recognition of human moments.
Thank you so much for sharing, I have always thought freedom camping was a hedonistic and wasteful thing, your principled and carefully thought out approach is inspirational.
👏 It's educational how you can live more simply if you have to/want to. I started out doing multi-day tramps into the wilderness with only what I could carry by way of food, clothing etc. & upgraded to living 3 weeks at a time in a basic hut with no hot water or indoor toilet etc (7 yrs x 7 months stints) & carrying fresh food in at the start of each roster. Funnily enough the simple life stayed once I returned to city living, & I joke that my small home is just a back country hut with an indoor flush toilet! (& electricity...)
Thank you for these tips Patricia! We've been travelling for only 8 or 9 months so far and loving it. Not too consciously avoiding pollution - in eastern Europe and now in Turkey there's heaps and heaps of rubbish everywhere and everything comes in one-use plastic bags. We've also heard that Turkey imports rubbish from other countries and burns it to generate power - not sure what to think of that? We are used to separating our rubbish out but that's impossible here.
But yes, living in a motorhome makes you think twice before acquiring another trinket. So rather than acquiring momentos from different places, the only thing we try to "take" is photos (and yes leave only footprints, even when other people leave behind lots of rubbish).
Too true Nick. A small attempt to out-grinch you: catching up with friends and family must become a sometimes and local thing - flying halfway around the world for a few days is not particularly planet friendly. I realised during Covid that when you choose to live far far away that face to face contact is no longer a basic right, it is rather an extravagance…
I must have hearnt a 😇 as I haven't bought Xmas presents since being on the super but even before that for the exact same reasons that you've described Nick some of the family do & that's up to them I think it's far more important to enjoy each other's company & yummy food which we all contribute to.
Yes, our whanau is very aware of waste and overconsumption, so we just have a nice lunch with a friend or two invited. We don't do presents, haven't for years, but we do give each other gifts from time to time, usually of the home-grown or plant variety. And books.
Well Nick your comments prompted a couple of thoughts in my tiny mind early this morning - It is all very well for the white rich minority to be "rich and sorted" - to have more than the rank and file rest of us, but when - if - climate change becomes a reality all of the people on earth will be the recipients. It used to be that waste generally was biodegradable - now the estimate is that 20% is non-degradable, all we need to do is check a landfill or transfer station to see it! The WWF estimates the production cost of the waste packaging to be $370 billion a year. Who pays for that cost? People, consumers, the white rich minority pay also, but they will also have more to loose.
I wonder if Luxon will have the largest carbon output in terms of his travel compared to past PMs? I’d be seriously interested in his receipts!
Netflix has a quite good doco called Buy Now! about consumption, it’s a bit laboured with unnecessary gimmicky voiceovers etc but the basic premise and resulting stats are shocking really. The last time we went to the tip in west Auckland the guy said they have 5/6000 tonnes through every day. Yikes.
Moko’s, rua moko’s - including in-laws so over 60 at last count) are all part of a secret Santa where names go in a hat and are drawn out and about October you get your name. This gift is to be handmade or second hand op shop under $20. I made a cushion cover from a Dad’s old shirt, received a whānau calendar, my daughter made Xmas crackers, received home made fudge - you get the idea. Growing up our kids received a gift for school eg lunch box, pencil case etc and an experience eg horse riding, white water rafting, helicopter ride, ferry ride, ( when we’re were broke, unemployed and they were little it was bus to the airport to watch the planes take off and land or bus to the beach for a picnic day,trip to the park and a barbecue dinner) 15 year olds were enthusiastic about their gift card of driving lessons from mum or dad - their choice :) The crass commercialisation of Christmas has always deeply saddened me.
I feel a tad badge of honourish John. Second year of making all my presents, recycled steel and cardboard or paper creations..........and then there's no sale bandwagons for outr house........stayn home and loving it. I always say hairy Christmas which cuts many ways..........and as Nick writes.....re the little kid comment, it is so him. Who could be merry anyways except with some level of deep denial, around Israel and what it alone is perpetrating from the saviour of the whole worlds land. It's a tad may the farce be with you.......
Our family solved the present dilemma years ago by doing secret santa. Everyone who comes to lunch brings a $10 present to go in the basket. After lunch we have a hilarious hour, one person at a time chooses a present either lucky dip from the basket or steal off someone who has already opened a present, no one is safe and everyone wants to go last.
Lol, we do have fun with it, have to change the order we go in each year so its a different person who goes last as thats the prime position. Its a great icebreaker when you have new people in the extended whanau
Have resisted the urge to post "Ho Ho Fucking Ho" from Kevin Bloody Wilson. All the elves on strike. Rudolph up himself and Santa stealing the show. It is quite crude, so find it yourself and have a laugh. I agree about presents. We have enough stuff. We've just ditched two rooms worth. Books, however, still make the cut. I hope our library(s) are there for people to come. And then there's always the music.
It’s obvious really that it cannot be true that one Santa Clause could deliver present even to all New Zealand children. Logic dictates that there must be thousands and thousands of Santas and Sleighs all with a full compliment of reindeer. Breath pouring out the skies must be full of CO2 every December. Ban Christmas.
Great post, Nick (or is that Santa)? And a great topic that's made me think. These days I stay put for Christmas. I don't buy much in the way of gifts, but those I do are useful, like money cards or things I know people want/need. I confess to flying up to Auckland in a few weeks to meet up with my Melbourne-based brother and his partner, who I haven't seen since 2017, and other family members. We've booked a holiday home and I'm determined not to feel guilty because the rest of the time I use public transport, eat mostly plants, recycle and compost, buy from op shops, and have reduced my air travel to once a year, even though most of my family live elsewhere. Maybe next year will be the one I give up on the gifts unless I can make them myself.
Our final parent died this year, relieving us of the obligation to do the traditional Christmas thing. We decided instead to celebrate Solstice, it was great avoiding all the hype, some good friends, excellent food and great conversation. No presents, no trees no stress. I’m trying to create my own rituals- couldn’t face the patriarchal ownership history of marriage, but scored civil union licence number 3 and decided how we wanted to celebrate and wanted to say.
Like the motor home owner in one of the previous comments, we realised how little we needed when we spent 10 years sailing round the world in a small yacht. That got travelling out of our system in an ecologically friendly-ish way, so for our impending retirement, we’ll do our travel locally.
Fortunately, after many years driving far to Christmas family gatherings, we all now live fairly close in Northland. Even still, as we nearly arrived home from yesterdays gathering, we had to talk our way past a police cordon to be allowed to drive into our road. Just past our turn off was a head on crash. It was bad. SH1 closed for 6 hours.
We have limited spending on gifts these days, but still a pile of garbage or things I will regift came my way. Except a Kim Deal album from my wife who luckily was my secret Santa. She also gave me some cool t shirts. The kid though was spoiled.
I prefer birthdays. Thats when its fun to make a fuss.
Funny thing is after I sent this I went for a walk around the park and a wee girl of about three said earnestly to her father as I passed, “there’s Santa daddy.”
There’s a few more unnecessary happenings we could well do without. Nick, if you think you’re a grinch, please read on.
All motor sports should be banned, not only for the emissions produced during events but also those produced freighting vehicles to and from, thousands of team members, fans and other hangers-on who want to be part of the action.
The global fashion industry is right up there as well. It’s already been deemed responsible for around 10% of greenhouse gas emissions annually. For what?! The waste caused by the demands for keeping up with the latest trends, just as with every new shiny phone that comes out, is measured in tens of thousands of tonnes daily. Products just thrown away because the latest designers have told us what we must have and wear.
It’s one of the least sustainable unnecessary industries there is. I’m known for living in Levi’s and T shirts. I’ve done it for the last 60 years or so and am never out of fashion.
Cruise ships are next on the list. Much is said about how wonderful it is to relax and be waited upon as we sail across the seven seas. These leviathans produce more noxious emissions than virtually any other form of transportation, including the much more visible aviation industry. Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fossil fuels each day are required to drive these floating pollutant
factories, causing havoc above and below the waterline.
Speaking of which… yes, go for a swim but be careful where you go. It seems there’s an over abundance of great white sharks around the coast, and who knows what sort of shit happens in Wayne’s Brown Pool so I suggest you get to know the neighbours who have pools, stay home, enjoy your retro wardrobe offerings, leave the car in the garage and help save our planet😀😀
Love your final suggestion :)
Thanks Erika. I’d love it too if any of my neighbours had pools…☹️
Correct on all of the above Jeremy. I love fashion but must admit I'm thinking twice lately. As for those bloody cruise ships. People will soon (hopefully) be ashamed to admit that they have been on a cruise. As for motor sport.......I'm so glad someone has also said what I've been saying for ever. Of course it won't happen thanks to the huge amount of money involved. Jeepers I'm a real old grinch!
The fashion I really don’t like is that produced for events such as the Oscars, The Met, Emmys, and all the other glitzy occasions where clothes that collectively cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, to be worn once and never seen again, mainly by vacuous people who “ care very deeply about climate change, ecosystems, whales, kittens,blah blah”. Utterly disgraceful displays of excess and egotism in a world which can’t afford to sustain them.
Fear not, Cheryl, you’re not the only old grinch around. We’re all just keeping a low profile so we don’t get reviled by those who can’t or won’t see what really matters in our increasingly greedy, uncaring world.
When we lived in and travelled in our motorhome for 5 years, we discovered three things. 1 Is this what we need in the motorhome?
Will it stand the buffeting and bouncing around?
How can we off-set?
The piles of "must haves" shrank considerably when we put them through that sieve.
We added other things. A half sized broom and long handled shovel, a filtered water glass bottle 10L, a spare chilly bin for in the shower with a soaking product and water for flannels and smalls, which had 'soak bucket' written on top.
We invested in 3 buckets in which we planted herbs spring onions and picking lettuce. they were the first things put outside at any camp, and the marigolds or polyanthus were added for colour and insect repellent, and invited comment.
We learned to live simply. Another chilly bin with a bag of ice kept vegetables and greens cool and fresh 3 to 4 days at a time, while our fridge was full of aluminium trays to create cool pools of air which stopped all the cool air dropping out when the door was opened. We would put small bags of ice in each tray. this assisted the 'fridge against too much draw down on the battery.
We planned our main travel to do three things, see NZ, visit friends and rellies, and stay with my Mum Billie every six weeks for a week or more. Our unit in Rotorua was let out and managed by a real estate firm. Our Christmas times were always with my Mum, the New Year with friends.
It was a time when the travel club we belonged to had the mantra, "Leave only Footprints", this we realised had been spoiled when this type of travel was promoted during the Rugby World Cup. The people using those vans were out for a good time, not to "leave only footprints."
So yes, when something is commercialised for gain, environmental concerns go out the window, and we have so many money making promotions every year. Christmas Easter Birthdays Mother's Day Father's day on and on. All of them heating the planet. We now share time and have learned to reuse and keep things simple, making family and friends the center of the celebration.
Wonderful writing Nick, full of laugh out loud moments and recognition of human moments.
Loved hearing about you time in a motor home, how fabulous.
Thank you so much for sharing, I have always thought freedom camping was a hedonistic and wasteful thing, your principled and carefully thought out approach is inspirational.
👏 It's educational how you can live more simply if you have to/want to. I started out doing multi-day tramps into the wilderness with only what I could carry by way of food, clothing etc. & upgraded to living 3 weeks at a time in a basic hut with no hot water or indoor toilet etc (7 yrs x 7 months stints) & carrying fresh food in at the start of each roster. Funnily enough the simple life stayed once I returned to city living, & I joke that my small home is just a back country hut with an indoor flush toilet! (& electricity...)
Thank you for these tips Patricia! We've been travelling for only 8 or 9 months so far and loving it. Not too consciously avoiding pollution - in eastern Europe and now in Turkey there's heaps and heaps of rubbish everywhere and everything comes in one-use plastic bags. We've also heard that Turkey imports rubbish from other countries and burns it to generate power - not sure what to think of that? We are used to separating our rubbish out but that's impossible here.
But yes, living in a motorhome makes you think twice before acquiring another trinket. So rather than acquiring momentos from different places, the only thing we try to "take" is photos (and yes leave only footprints, even when other people leave behind lots of rubbish).
Too true Nick. A small attempt to out-grinch you: catching up with friends and family must become a sometimes and local thing - flying halfway around the world for a few days is not particularly planet friendly. I realised during Covid that when you choose to live far far away that face to face contact is no longer a basic right, it is rather an extravagance…
I must have hearnt a 😇 as I haven't bought Xmas presents since being on the super but even before that for the exact same reasons that you've described Nick some of the family do & that's up to them I think it's far more important to enjoy each other's company & yummy food which we all contribute to.
Yes, our whanau is very aware of waste and overconsumption, so we just have a nice lunch with a friend or two invited. We don't do presents, haven't for years, but we do give each other gifts from time to time, usually of the home-grown or plant variety. And books.
Well Nick your comments prompted a couple of thoughts in my tiny mind early this morning - It is all very well for the white rich minority to be "rich and sorted" - to have more than the rank and file rest of us, but when - if - climate change becomes a reality all of the people on earth will be the recipients. It used to be that waste generally was biodegradable - now the estimate is that 20% is non-degradable, all we need to do is check a landfill or transfer station to see it! The WWF estimates the production cost of the waste packaging to be $370 billion a year. Who pays for that cost? People, consumers, the white rich minority pay also, but they will also have more to loose.
I wonder if Luxon will have the largest carbon output in terms of his travel compared to past PMs? I’d be seriously interested in his receipts!
Netflix has a quite good doco called Buy Now! about consumption, it’s a bit laboured with unnecessary gimmicky voiceovers etc but the basic premise and resulting stats are shocking really. The last time we went to the tip in west Auckland the guy said they have 5/6000 tonnes through every day. Yikes.
My extended whanau (9 kids,
Moko’s, rua moko’s - including in-laws so over 60 at last count) are all part of a secret Santa where names go in a hat and are drawn out and about October you get your name. This gift is to be handmade or second hand op shop under $20. I made a cushion cover from a Dad’s old shirt, received a whānau calendar, my daughter made Xmas crackers, received home made fudge - you get the idea. Growing up our kids received a gift for school eg lunch box, pencil case etc and an experience eg horse riding, white water rafting, helicopter ride, ferry ride, ( when we’re were broke, unemployed and they were little it was bus to the airport to watch the planes take off and land or bus to the beach for a picnic day,trip to the park and a barbecue dinner) 15 year olds were enthusiastic about their gift card of driving lessons from mum or dad - their choice :) The crass commercialisation of Christmas has always deeply saddened me.
love this
Is it Merry Christmas. Or is it Happy Retailers Nirvana??
And, is it true that some gazillionaire spent $6 million on his wedding, that's a lot of school lunches.
I feel a tad badge of honourish John. Second year of making all my presents, recycled steel and cardboard or paper creations..........and then there's no sale bandwagons for outr house........stayn home and loving it. I always say hairy Christmas which cuts many ways..........and as Nick writes.....re the little kid comment, it is so him. Who could be merry anyways except with some level of deep denial, around Israel and what it alone is perpetrating from the saviour of the whole worlds land. It's a tad may the farce be with you.......
Our family solved the present dilemma years ago by doing secret santa. Everyone who comes to lunch brings a $10 present to go in the basket. After lunch we have a hilarious hour, one person at a time chooses a present either lucky dip from the basket or steal off someone who has already opened a present, no one is safe and everyone wants to go last.
Love the rules (or are they regulated principles?) for secret Santa-ing, the stealing ‘claus’ is a superb refinement
Lol, we do have fun with it, have to change the order we go in each year so its a different person who goes last as thats the prime position. Its a great icebreaker when you have new people in the extended whanau
Have resisted the urge to post "Ho Ho Fucking Ho" from Kevin Bloody Wilson. All the elves on strike. Rudolph up himself and Santa stealing the show. It is quite crude, so find it yourself and have a laugh. I agree about presents. We have enough stuff. We've just ditched two rooms worth. Books, however, still make the cut. I hope our library(s) are there for people to come. And then there's always the music.
It’s obvious really that it cannot be true that one Santa Clause could deliver present even to all New Zealand children. Logic dictates that there must be thousands and thousands of Santas and Sleighs all with a full compliment of reindeer. Breath pouring out the skies must be full of CO2 every December. Ban Christmas.
Great post, Nick (or is that Santa)? And a great topic that's made me think. These days I stay put for Christmas. I don't buy much in the way of gifts, but those I do are useful, like money cards or things I know people want/need. I confess to flying up to Auckland in a few weeks to meet up with my Melbourne-based brother and his partner, who I haven't seen since 2017, and other family members. We've booked a holiday home and I'm determined not to feel guilty because the rest of the time I use public transport, eat mostly plants, recycle and compost, buy from op shops, and have reduced my air travel to once a year, even though most of my family live elsewhere. Maybe next year will be the one I give up on the gifts unless I can make them myself.
We need our families and friends. Online is wonderful, but nothing beats a hug. So feel no guilt. You are doing what you are able.
Thanks Patricia. Hard not to feel guilty these days but all any of us can do is our best.
Excellent Patricia! Inspirational!!
Our final parent died this year, relieving us of the obligation to do the traditional Christmas thing. We decided instead to celebrate Solstice, it was great avoiding all the hype, some good friends, excellent food and great conversation. No presents, no trees no stress. I’m trying to create my own rituals- couldn’t face the patriarchal ownership history of marriage, but scored civil union licence number 3 and decided how we wanted to celebrate and wanted to say.
Like the motor home owner in one of the previous comments, we realised how little we needed when we spent 10 years sailing round the world in a small yacht. That got travelling out of our system in an ecologically friendly-ish way, so for our impending retirement, we’ll do our travel locally.
Fortunately, after many years driving far to Christmas family gatherings, we all now live fairly close in Northland. Even still, as we nearly arrived home from yesterdays gathering, we had to talk our way past a police cordon to be allowed to drive into our road. Just past our turn off was a head on crash. It was bad. SH1 closed for 6 hours.
We have limited spending on gifts these days, but still a pile of garbage or things I will regift came my way. Except a Kim Deal album from my wife who luckily was my secret Santa. She also gave me some cool t shirts. The kid though was spoiled.
I prefer birthdays. Thats when its fun to make a fuss.
Fuck. Turns out I know the person who died in that crash. Husband and 2 kids were in the car also. The 8 year old is my sons friend. So tragic.