andy_ross

background

Since late 2006, home has been Glasgow. I share a flat with 5 others on the south side and spend too much time in an office in the city centre. I woke up to climate change in 2005 after reading Mark Lynas' book High Tide. In CRAGs for many reasons but perhaps most importantly because it allows me to do at a local scale what I think our governments should be doing at a global scale. Favourite mode of transport: bike. Favourite food: anything freegan. Favourite quote (at the moment!): "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."(Mahatma Gandhi)

Glasgow (admin), Leamington (admin) (other roles website team)

“”What I like about CRAGs is that we are doing it together. It is one in the eye for this atomising society that insists that we all go it alone with our individual carbon pledges and individual efforts. CRAGs for me is mutual carbon aid. I have been encouraged greatly by discovering what personal CO2 reductions are possible without any financial outlay but rather a simple change in attitude towards home energy use and, particularly, travel behaviour. Seeing what reductions are possible at no great cost has challenged my understanding of what a fair ration for a UK citizen should be. Beginning to wonder why we should have a "grandfathering" right to emit more than the average African or Asian over a "convergence period". Also beginning to think that there may be simpler ways of carbon rationing than DTQ's and PCA's. Am attracted by Richard Dowthwaite's idea of Cap and Share. The Irish government is thinking about implementing this novel carbon rationing framework to rein in Ireland ballooning transport emissions.

profile

2006/7 footprint: 7300kg (see Leamington CRAG pages for details). 2007 footprint: 1300kg. How? By giving up flying (haven't missed it so far), getting rid of car (easy as I am now city living), cycling everywhere (why do people travel any other way in towns?), benefitting from my neighbours central heating habits (guess this won't last for ever!), thinking twice about frequency and length of my public transport journeys (they still create about 0.1kgCO2 per mile travelled!). £ spent = CO2 emitted

expertise

I can read a map and use a compass