A really good, comprehensive and visual look at what are the challenges that are creating the environmental problems we can see and are forecasting to happen - from the burgeoning population to extracting too much from the earth, to the impact of the missing ozone layer or shifting seasons. It’s not all doom and gloom, there is a look at the future and what could be done, but let’s be honest, this is a necessarily brutal book.

I’ve scaled back my Zero Waste efforts recently because real life has gotten in the way, as it always tends to do. But I’m still always interested in people and companies that are thinking outside the box and being innovative in the way they design products. I stumbled on One Good Thing, OGT, who make a variety of protein bars that don’t have a wrapper - or they do but it’s edible so it doesn’t result in any waste at all.

I do find some of the headlines on The B1M videos to be a bit extravagant - it’s the biggest this, the greatest this, the worst of this, etc. etc. But this one about the “world’s most remote infrastructure project” caught my eye because, well, of course it did. The video takes a look at a network of undersea tunnels that is connecting the disparate Faroe Islands and it’s a fascinating watch.

Just a thumbs up to Flexi-Hex, a product I pulled out of a recent delivery box and was pleasantly surprised by. Rather than the usual plastic and bubble wrap that you find when opening a box of, let’s be honest about it, gin bottles, Flexi-Hex takes recycled paper and makes a kind of accordian style cardboard thing that does just as good a job of keeping deliverables protected.

A really useful guide to having less of an impact on the earth. Rather than coming at this from a shouty zero-waste position, this book is a really supportive look at areas all around the house and your life that you can make small tweaks to have a bigger impact. Of course tiny changes are tiny, but every little helps and as everyone starts doing them, that’s when we’ll see the difference. Some of these things are obvious but some are less so. Great reference book to dip into.

I picked this up because I had enjoyed Rachel’s three books celebrating the stories of women across different disciplines through history. This is a similar idea, gorgeous illustrations to highlight a topic - but this time the topic is how life on earth works, how everything is interconnected, and of course, how a lot of human activity is threatening the balance of life on Planet Earth. It’s a gorgeous read, but worrying in places, which means its doing exactly the right thing.

I’m slightly obsessed with these DK books that keep popping up in Kindle sales, and even though they are mostly aimed at kids, I still love looking through them. This one was aimed at a really young audience but I think because the subject matter is so good - who doesn’t love the ocean and find it fascinating? - it was still really entertaining for me who is, erm, a bit older than the target reader.

As part of the efforts to reduce waste and combined with a need to try and reduce grocery costs due to the wider economy challenges, I’ve been quite focused on the kitchen recently. It means considering how best to cook things in which devices, whether to bulk up and batch cook, and how much time is too much time to spend meal planning.

One of the easiest switches in the battle to reduce plastic is from shower gel and shampoo bottles to soap bars. Soap has, obviously, been around forever, but there’s been a real revolution recently in making it as eco-friendly as possible, as accessible as possible, whilst not being the skin-drying-boring-smelling compromise that some bars are.

I don’t remember being particularly fond of the Mr Men & Little Miss books as a child or at any point in my lifetime, but they were certainly around. I potentially had an affinity with Mr Bump and was suitably horrified by Mr Tickle. I didn’t know they were still being created and books were still being released with new characters all the time, it must be quite the universe at this point.

I read a lot last year, in all sorts of formats. Along with the poetry and comics that I was trying out for the first time, there were the regularly scheduled books, audiobooks, reference books, shorts and a great mix of genres through them all. I’ve noticed a few more physical books creeping into my life, mostly as gifts but occasionally because that just is the best format for reading something in. Digital is still my go-to though, if only because having a book on hand to dip into at any given moment is a big driver behind how I’ve managed to read so much.

A few years ago, boxed wine was the kind of thing you had when you couldn’t really afford the good stuff. It was looked down upon. Apparently, now, that’s all changing, and boxed wine is actually what we should all be buying. Unless you’re buying super posh wine that needs to sit in a cooled cellar and age for a few decades, there’s no actual advantage to having wine in a glass bottle, but that’s such an ubiquitous method of wine delivery, no one has really questioned it.

The zero-waste challenge is still ongoing in my household, or maybe I should call it the reduce-waste-as-much-as-possible-because-zero-is-unrealistic challenge. When I use things and throw things away, I try to take a minute to think about if there’s a better alternative, and quite often find that there is, even if it’s not a perfect swap. That’s good news and it’s always a nice feeling when you embed something more virtuous into your life.

As I’m looking out for more environmentally friendly product options, I couldn’t ignore it when I saw someone promoting Wild deodorant on TikTok and then getting an introductory deal on the same day. I don’t really need to write a long post about this because the concept is simple and really makes sense - you can buy one-offs or subscribe but overall the system is you get a reusable case and then order refills of the deodorants.

The phrase ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ doesn’t really cover everything we need to do to fix our planet, but it’s a really good place to start and does help you think in the right way. Reuse is one of the best options, meaning new items don’t need to be made and we can really get the most out of our products. It’s no wonder that milk delivery to your door in glass bottles has been making a comeback, sped up by the pandemic but also by a convenience/conservation aspect too.

My breakfast habits are inconsistent at best, but sometimes I get into a bit of a rhythm with porridge and enjoy eating it for a few days at a time. The thing about porridge is though, and forgive me because I really am just this lazy, it’s quite a lot of effort and banging around pots and pans in the morning when people are trying to sleep. You can do the overnight oats thing but that’s not quite the same, and that’s why I’ve previously fallen into the trap of the instant porridge pots.

Generally speaking, spirits such as gin, vodka, and rum, are packaged in nicely crafted glass bottles - very reusable, recyclable and perfectly acceptable in Christine’s new regime against unnecessary waste. However, I couldn’t help but be excited by the concept of Gin in a Tin and managed to get my hands on one. It looks like a sleek over-sized hip flask and it’s full of delicious sloe gin. I thought this was genius.

One of the first things I had to address when I started thinking about reducing waste was my meal delivery box. I’ve learnt so much over the years getting a weekly delivery with great recipes and the ingredients all laid out for you - gained a lot of confidence and started to understand how to throw together a meal with the basics in your store cupboards. But I couldn’t ignore how much plastic and waste was coming into my house each week.

Recently, I’ve become obsessed with reducing waste. Although, I suppose it’s not that much of a recent phenomenon, it’s something that I’ve been mindful of for the past few years, with an increasing focus on our planet. I’ve made sensible changes where possible - sourcing toilet rolls from a paper-based subscription service, scrapping all physical mail and magazines where possible (Christmas Radio Times excluded, obviously!), and choosing glass options over plastic if available.

This book has really fired my brain up in terms of reducing waste. It’s a great guide to the concept of zero waste, with hundreds of good tips and a journey to follow if you want to do it that way. It’s got no judgement and lots of encouragement - every little change you make can make a difference so you don’t have to suddenly be zero waste and living a poorer life for it. I was surprised how much of this I already do but there’s still plenty I can look at it in my own life to improve upon. Really recommend giving this a read.

The struggle of this book is that’s trying to be two things at once - a memoir, and then a manifesto about solving climate change. Both were interesting but I’m not 100% sure how well they fit together. However, it’s well written, full of the arrogance that helps someone get this kind of success in business, but equally humble enough to not alienate you. The climate stuff towards the end was where I really got interested - the vegan football team is absolutely fascinating.

Coldplay have always been a divisive band, one of those who for some reason it’s cool to dislike them. I’m not sure if I’ve fallen either side of the debate, although their debut album Parachutes got me through some difficult times, so does have my esteem. I haven’t really thought about Coldplay for a while, but two things in the news recently have made me think about what this band is doing and where they’re headed.

I sort of had to split this book into two things as I was reading - one was the memoir of what Mark did, and one was the manifesto of freeconomic living. The two elements worked very differently. As a memoir, it’s brilliant. Mark is open and honest, upfront about the challenges of living like this, about his thoughts and doubts, and experiences along the way. It’s an interesting idea and one that is worth thinking about, so raising the profile of the problems money causes is great.

I remember watching the TV show that this book is tied-in with when it was on oh-so-long ago, but I’m not sure if I ever read the book. I saw a newer book by Dick Strawbridge that led me back to this one, and I thought it would be interesting to have a quick dive in. It brought back some memories but what was fascinating to see was how much has changed and how much hasn’t. There are areas that the Strawbridges focus on that are still a problem today, but also areas that we have actually managed to make progress on - plastic bags, etc.

I’ve never read a book of speeches before and thought if I was going to start anywhere, then Greta Thunberg might be a place to kick off. Of course the messages are stark and terrifying and so important, but what I really thought was interesting was the progression of the speeches.

Hey, remember when I wrote about buying a Soda Stream to replace the endless bottles of sparkling water I was wasting? Well, I just had to change the gas canister and it got even more awesome. Firstly, that’s lasted just over three months, which is longer than I’d expected and has saved a really significant number of plastic bottles. Secondly, the replacement canister I bought was just a bit more than £20 so it’s also saved a significant amount of cash.

When I was a kid, I’d go to my grandparent’s house and as a special treat, you could make a drink with their SodaStream. It was kept out in a utility room or conservatory because it was a noisy machine, putting carbonation into the beverage of your choice. The only things I particularly remember about the experience is that it was a) a lot of fun and something to look forward to and b) resulted in some pretty rubbish colas and lemonades that didn’t live up to the hype.

The most recent episode of Robert Llewellyn’s Fully Charged YouTube series focused on the fun and future-proof idea of solar-powered trains. Electricity-powered trains are front and centre at the moment, with the ongoing works to upgrade the length of the Great Western Railway line, but this episode talks of a short track that goes just a little bit further. Based in Australia, where there is a little bit more sunshine than we have in the UK, the Byron Bay Railroad Company refurbished an old train, refitting it with batteries and solar panels and allowing the machine not only to power itself with renewable energy but also to give power back to the grid.

I don’t know much about fashion. I’m the kind of person that has a few staple items, and a few other bits I love and that’s about it. I detest clothes shopping, but I don’t mind ogling some of the sites where people show off their outfits each day. I found this video, which takes the idea of a staple to extremes. To help raise money for charity, Sheena set up the Uniform Project - wearing the same little black dress every day for a year (or the same style dress anyway, I assume there was some washing involved).

Chris Packham has hit headlines for resurfacing an old argument of his, that pandas should be left to die out with dignity. This is bound to ruffle my feathers, because I am one of those people he so resoundedly sneers at, donating £3 a month because the panda is cuddly. But why shouldn’t I? In the original argument, Packham introduces his theory, pointing out that the panda lives on the poor nutrition of bamboo, and isn’t exactly “rabbit-like” when it comes to reproduction. But then he says:

I don’t know why people complain about wind farms, I think they’re beautiful. They’re the kind of thing I could watch all day. Hypnotising. Like driving through falling snow. However, this news story is rather worrying. A farmer in Taiwan believes that 400 of his 750 goats have died due to exhaustion - a lack of sleep caused by the vibrations and noise of a nearby wind farm. There’s no proof, but it seems like a heck of a coincidence. More argument for taking these things off shore?

Ovation for Darius’s Rhett Butler I didn’t know this was what he’s doing now. A step up from Popstars, eh? Still, if the critics hate it, it’s bound to be good. McDonald’s savours designer look Wow. How much do I want a scarf with a big fat M on it? Driver fined for Bond car crash Right, sorry, isn’t he a stunt driver? How can it be dangerous driving when it’s his job?

I think there was a programme on the BBC called It’s Not Easy Being Green. I didn’t watch it but I am currently reading the book, and it’s brilliant. It’s all about a family who gave up their home and moved to Cornwall, to set up a much more eco-friendly life. They didn’t give themselves up to the land or anything, and are still normal people with jobs and lives, but they are “reducing their eco-footprint on the world”.

A few nights ago, I came home to find a little solar panel hanging out the window. How cool is that? We’ve been talking about green issues recently (more on that later), and now we have our very first solar panel? We sat back and watched in amazement as the camera it was powering spat out a picture that had been picked up using the sun’s rays alone. Suddenly, the picture started to lose it’s colour and then the picture started to fuzz.

Looked out the window in the morning, grey skies. Oh well. Today we were scheduled to visit the Eden Project, something I’d been keen to see since it was created. Unfortunately, it’s not worth the entrance fee. The guidebook, however, is really good value. At £4, it was absolutely bursting with information and I have yet had time to read more than the first few pages. I really like the idea of taking an old used quarry (read that in the guidebook) and turning it into something beautiful. I think the recycling image that the Eden Project gives out is perfect. Did you know that the rainwater that collects in the quarry is used to water the outside plants and flush the loos? (Again, the guidebook.) And the bubbles are the biggest greenhouses in the world. (Good god, is there anything this guidebook can’t tell me?) All of that stuff is brilliant, but when it comes down to it, we were there only a couple of hours before we got bored.

Did anyone else watch If the lights go out? I thought it was going to be really good, eye opening, scare us all into doing something about the use of all our power sources. But it actually did nothing of the sort. First of all, they didn’t show that we were using a ton more electricity than now. The girl was playing a video game. Er, we do that now don’t we? Secondly, why would we have stopped making nuclear power? It’s the best source of power we have and is currently getting cheaper.