Blog 5

Christmas is coming!

Cultural festivals, such as Christmas, are undoubtedly enjoyable and an important time for families and friends to relax together. Many have important religious significance. On the other hand, such events are often defined by excess and waste...lights, fireworks, over-packaging, excessive spending, over-eating and embarrassing self indulgence.

What do you think? Is Christmas sustainable? How would it all work in a changed world?

Or should all the 'do-gooders' leave our festivals alone!!!!



I would like to think that Christmas was a sustainable time of celebration, it brings so much joy to people and seems like the most harmless thing in the world, but unfortunately, it is more than likely to be the most unsustainable time of the year.

There is so much going on at Christmas to promote serious unsustainable development. The most major impact will result from all of the gifts being purchased, many more of the Earth’s resources are being eaten away very rapidly at this time of year, more raw materials are needed to create the gifts and much fuel is needed to transport all of these goods around the world. The other major contribution to this unsustainable movement is that there is so much more food consumption around the world, everybody stuffs themselves at Christmas and there is always loads of food left over every year. This extra consumption makes us use more gas and electric to cook it and the extra animals being bred and slaughtered is bound to have an effect on our planet, mainly through gases such as methane and carbon dioxide.

I have noticed that there is a new gift on sale this year known as “Nothing”, it’s a good-humoured scheme that encourages people to buy absolutely nothing but still get the buzz from the shopping experience, the website is set out to imitate the popular online store, Amazon. From this, it looks like some people are taking steps to create a more sustainable Christmas, the product description even states; “Shop your sustainable heart out and Buy Nothing”.











I think that in the years to come, we are going to see many more sustainable ideas at this time of year. More and more people are turning towards greener living and are realising the impact that humans have on the planet. People are being encouraged and in some cases, rewarded for utilising environmentally-friendly alternatives. I think that if people took a step back and stopped treating Christmas as a time of spending, greed and excessive consumption, we may see a more positive turn towards a sustainable Christmas, but for the time being, Christmas appears to be a highly unsustainable time of the year.

Blog 4

To what extent do the best selling UK newspapers cover stories related to serious issues? To what extent would you think that it is their role to do so? In your opinion does the tabloid media and 'low budget entertainment' (reality shows, soaps) have too much power and influence in this country?


Most newspapers are dominated by celebrities, scandals and sports. There are very few “serious” articles out there. The vast majority of people like to be entertained and kept informed about things they care about such as football, horoscopes and their favourite stars. Looking at the list of the six most popular papers, I know that I would not buy them to read about climate change, astronomy or wildlife concerns. Two newspapers that I believe are very informative when it comes down to serious issues are the Guardian and the Independent; they are the most geographical papers and seem to have the best knowledge about the environment.




















Having looked at some newspapers this week, it is easy to see that there are two different sides to the views of serious issues. The Sun has been mainly looking at celebrities in their top stories; I have seen very large write-ups about Tiger Woods’ fling and articles about Jordan being reunited with Peter for their sons’ nativity. This is very alarming for me to see that this is considered as relevant for top stories and front page news. On the other hand, looking at the Independent, I can see a vast difference in the calibre of the news. The first article I read is titled “Climate change special: 12 days to save the world”, I am very pleased to see that this paper is covering world issues that matter. That’s what we need to be informed about, things that will affect the human race, things that are threatening to us. Indy writer Johann Hari has given the opening statement “We face a threat as terrible as the rise of fascism”, it seems ludicrous that there are not many more people reading such articles. Perhaps people are afraid of the truth? Or maybe they are just naive?




















It is shocking to see that so many people in the nation live their lives around reality TV and soaps. I don’t believe that these shows have any positive role in society apart from the fact that they make people happy. People dedicate their lives to these programmes and sacrifice other, sometimes more important things just to catch 30 minutes of their favourite show. They do not give any guidance on life issues, etiquette or world issues. I’m not saying that everyone should be forced to watch documentaries on poverty, development and resource depletion but there should be more dedication to serious world issues, we cannot strive for a sustainable future if millions of people have their heads in the sand.