Once, if you’d told me that I could invite 5 people of my choice, living or dead, to a dinner party, my choices would have no doubt been teenage crushes and pop heroes/heroines. Keanu Reeves, Joshua Jackson of Dawson’s Creek fame, Madonna maybe.
And while I still have a great interest in pop culture and I still have some crushes on celebrity pin ups, I have developed more of an inquisitive mind, more of a conscience and most importantly, the desire to do some good in life.
So if you asked me now, my choices would be different. Of course being a woman, I would probably agonise for days over my invitees but one thing’s for sure, they would definitely include Sir David Attenborough (my all-time hero - more on him another time) and more recently, Lucy Siegle the ethical living correspondent for the Observer Magazine.
In the past I’ve known about the threats of global warming and pollution and the effects that humans have on our precious environment, but like millions of others I’ve always taken that approach…you know…what’s the point? What good will one person do?
And then one Sunday I read an article that Lucy had written and one fact punched me in the stomach, shook me around by the shoulders and scared the living daylights out of me… “a conventional showergel takes 800 years to fully wash away”
Since then I’ve decided that I need to start doing my bit and that means that wherever possible I will make the environmentally friendly, ethical choice. I may merely be one person, but if one hundred people like me start making tiny little steps and then another hundred and another, well, that will be worth it won’t it?
I promise not to preach or resort to those tactics used by zealous fanatics trying to convert everyone they bump into. Instead I will try to keep things simple, informed and humourous where possible. And if you think that I’m writing about makes sense, then perhaps you could join me too on my journey of fair green steps.
