Radical Rethink blog – Will we go green post-Covid?

18 May Radical Rethink blog – Will we go green post-Covid?

So how green is your valley – or rather your household and/or business?

How close do you adhere to the environmental three R’s – reduce, reuse and recycle?

What about planes, trains and automobiles? What does the thud of your carbon footprint do to the planet and how has your attitude to transport changed during the pandemic?

These are all questions to be faced as we come blinking into the light after three national lockdowns.

“Covid has shifted everything ten years forward,” commented an astute attendee to our last Radical Rethink meeting.

Forget bouncing back, springing forward is key to any post-Covid recovery with the responsibility for our own behaviour more important than ever.

In working from home, most of have proved we can each help cut emissions. We can easily meet online instead and avoid wasting time and money to attend meetings.

We can supporting local business, enjoy seasonal foods grown on our doorstep and maybe forego some of the cheap and often cheerless air travel.

While the answer lies partly in our backyard it is also what we do as a society.

No one can claim to be unaware of the harm of global warming. We know the size of the targets we must reach and are aware of looming timelines.

If we’re serious about putting the planet ahead of private gain, then we have to foster innovation over preservation – to seize an opportunity to create jobs lost to the crippling effects of Covid as we fire up a new economy with benefits for all of us.

Personal responsibility isn’t just to do with transport – but recycling and reusing things. Reduction too. Have shops being closed for months on end changed our wanton desire to over-consume?

Most of us could shed one-third of the clothes in our wardrobes with even noticing.

A political appetite might also be there. Hidden beneath May’s British election results was a stark warning for established parties. The smugness of the Hartlepool by-election was wiped off the Tories’ faces as hundreds of councillors in their blue rinse heartlands lost seats to the burgeoning Green Party – just as they made gains on Labour in Wales and in SNP-dominated Scotland.

Not huge at the moment maybe – but just as each party in government benefited from a Covid vaccine boost so the direction of travel may well head in favour of a fresher geopolitical approach with the planet put first.

As another of our Radical Rethink attendees asked at our last meeting: “When people study the history of this pandemic – imagine if they discovered that we just went back to doing what we did before. How will they judge us?” How indeed?

Going Green is the theme of this month’s Radical Rethink webinar on Friday, June 11 from 10am to 12pm.

Find out more on our Radical Rethink page and book your place via Eventbrite. Ticket fees include a donation to our chosen charity Worcester Foodbank.