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Christmas Cooking without gas

Christmas comes but once a year, and in the not too distant future cooking the Christmas turkey may become as simple as leaving it out in the sun for an hour or two; or is that over-reacting to the effects of climate change.

It may simply be a matter of:

2025 – 4 hours in direct sunlight;
2050 – 3 hours in the shade;
2075 – incineration or anybody's guess!

It is an interesting thought though, because not only will the cooking process save on the need for an oven, but it could even save money and natural resources too. That is providing we haven't used all the gas and other fossil fuels during the intervening years anyway.

And all of this has ramifications across the full Sustainability Spectrum including social, environmental and economic elements. For example with no need for an oven there will be job losses, factory closures and similar effects on supporting infrastructures, with both social and economic impacts. But on the positive side without the production process and consumption of fuel, there will be less harm to the environment

There are other advantages too. The south of England is already experiencing a milder climate allowing for the expansion of home produced products such as wines, berries and fruits and this may soon become a booming trade as the ability for traditional grape growing regions declines due to excessive heat. There are obvious social benefits emanating from the wine trade, and if ‘locally-produced’ means a better price then there are also economic advantages too. With respect to the environment, I suppose after a few drinks everything could seem green!

Returning to another spectrum – environmental issues are often referred to as green, but as the temperature rises, the burning red glow of the sun will purge the white of the winter snow – Christmas with no snow, not so much a matter of ‘incomprehensible’, more an issue of lost income to places like the Cairngorms and other regions that depend upon the snow for their livelihood.

However, if there was a static warmer climate that produced guaranteed sunshine, then there could also be a boost in the tourism industry across the entire UK, albeit with a different slant. No more problems of: ‘will it rain?’; ‘do I need to take an umbrella, a coat and jumper?’ – all will be solved, we will become a nation of sunbathers making excellent use of all the improved quality waterways, rivers and beaches that we hear so much about from the Environment Agency's statistics.

So climate change may not be a bad thing after all !

But wait a minute. In most things that we do – drive, walk, talk, write, etc. – there is also the freedom of when to stop. We do have control. But do we have control over climate change? And, if as modeling predicts, once the earth's temperature increases by another 3 degrees – will it be too late to stop?

It isn't too late to change things providing we act now. And that includes being more environmentally considerate by using less, recycling more and generating less waste – otherwise Global Warming may take on a completely new inference of ‘Worldwide Incineration’

Posted by Brian Millsom, Environmental Impact Manager from OGCbuying.solutions on 31/01/2007 - 13:00:26