OIL FAST 2010
OIL FAST 2010
OPERATION NOAH’S OIL FAST 2010 SUNDAY OCTOBER 3RD Introduction
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Preparations
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Action
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Facts & Figures Travel
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Food
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Homes
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Water
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Stuff & Clothes
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Fun
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Resources
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Statistics based on information from ‘How to live a low Carbon life’ by Chris Goodall and ‘How bad are bananas?’ by Mike Berner s-Lee – both of which are highly recommended. ON takes responsibilities for any inaccuracies and all figures are approximate for ease of adding up.
OPERATION NOAH’S OIL FAST 2010
We’re ‘hooked’ on oil; dependent on it every day of our lives. Few of us realise how serious our addiction is a nd how serious the consequences are.
Events in Spring 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico made everyone aware of one of the wider costs of our global dependence on oil. The oil leak and pollution had serious consequences; environmental destruction, loss of livelihoods and huge costs to BP and its shareholders around the world. The ongoing oil leaks and pollution in the Niger Delta where Shell has been extracting oil for many years, have received little of the publicity which covered the Gulf of Mexico leak, but the consequences are the same; environmental destruction, loss of livelihoods and also serious impacts on human health.
OPERATION NOAH’S OIL FAST 2010
Operation Noah is calling on Christians to stop for a day and take stock of our joint and personal complicity in the ongoing drive to exploit ever more challenging and inaccessible oil reserves. The oil fast will:
Help raise our awareness concerning our dependence on oil Focus our thinking on how this dependence is threatening our earth’s well being Provide time for reflection and penitence about the consequences Give an opportunity to pray for all those whose lives are impacted by oil spills and disasters Bring Christians together to enjoy doing things differently. We’d like to have called for an ‘Oil free’ day – but realistically virtually no-one in the UK could do this such is our dependence!
Set aside Sunday, 3rd October now as a day to fast from oil and encourage others in your church and community to join you.
40 Kg CO2
OPERATION NOAH’S OIL FAST 2010
Preparations Acting and learning together is not only more
and medications, plastic piping for water, sewage and
enjoyable, but also enhances learning and sharing, so
gas supplies and candles.
please encourage others to join in. Ask members of your home group, your church, your neighbours and
Oil provides the basis of most of our travel by land, air
your friends to join with you.
and sea, drives many of our power stations which provide us with electricity, transports the food and
Can you plan a shared meal – or some kind of joint
goods we depend on around the globe, as well as
action during the day?
providing numerous essential ingredients for everyday commodities.
Advertise the day in your church and local area. Invite people to a meeting to discuss the day and plan what
The average UK person has a carbon footprint of 15
you could do personally and jointly. If possible plan a
tonnes CO2 (this includes our consumption of goods
shared meal and a time of prayer and reflection.
and the indirect benefits we gain through infrastructure
Ask for special prayers to be said in the church that
etc). That’s equivalent to 40 Kg of CO2 every day. We’ll
day. If possible ask church leaders to base the service
give you some suggestions about
around this theme. Use our sermon notes and
the CO2 cost of everyday actions so you can work out
children’s activities. Use our press release to publicise
the impact of your fasting. How much can you save
your plans in the local and church press. Use this
during your fast?
notice to publicise in your church newssheet. We have broken down suggested actions into six
Action
lifestyle areas. Here are some
We need to look at the various ways oil usage is
background facts and figures for each together with
interwoven in our lives so we can consider how to
some suggested action and responses:
reduce our use on October 3rd. Crude oil is refined after extraction to form numerous useful products.
Warning There are some actions which we strongly
These include gas, petrol, aviation fuel, diesel, heating
recommend that you do not include - regular medications,
oil, tar, asphalt and waxes. Processing the various
turning off fridges and freezers and using any kind of
products from refined oil also provides plastics,
medical or disability aids – these all fall outside the fast.
synthetic clothing, plastic packaging for products, foods
OPERATION NOAH’S OIL FAST 2010
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Accounts for 1/5 of our personal carbon usage.
This is probably the first thing that comes to mind. Filling up our cars with oil and diesel provide a graphic reminder of our links with oil. So - can you cope without your car today? Public transport also depends largely on oil, but is much better than individuals travelling in there own cars.. Plane travel – please don’t think about it today!!
A 12 Km journey to church or the shops in an average car driven smoothly uses 2 Kg CO2 A 12 Km journey by train uses 0.5 Kg CO2 A 12 Km bus journey uses 0.35 Kg CO2 Suggested action Share lifts if you live somewhere isolated. Worship in house groups if church is too far to reach by bike? Can you dust off the bike and cycle all day? Walking is definitely oil free (even if your shoe soles are synthetic!).
Food
7 kg
Accounts for over 1/6 of our personal carbon usage.
Appetising food on our plates. It all looks so good. Surely not much oil is used to produce this? Sadly the food we eat is closely interwoven with the use of oil. Firstly oil is used to power the ships, trucks and planes that transport food from around the world – oranges, bananas, salads, green beans etc. And again within our country; from farmer, to washing and sorting areas, to supermarket packing depos and back out to supermarkets. Buy local whenever possible. Secondly oil provides an essential ingredient for many of the fertilisers and chemicals that are used to boost yields. Buying organic avoids this.
OPERATION NOAH’S OIL FAST 2010
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Thirdly oil provides heating and power for crops grown in greenhouses and polytunnels – tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, salad vegetables etc. Eat food in season and enjoy the variety. Fourthly grain based meat production has a high ecological cost and also uses oil for the fertilisers and transport of the grain around the world. Cut back on meat and dairy. Finally oil provides the plastic boxes, wrapping film and plastic bags that wrap much of what we buy. Can you do without any plastic bags today?
The average foodstuffs bought in the UK cost 8 Kg of carbon each day to grow, transport, process and package. A quarter of the food sold is wasted. Veggie burger 1 Kg Cheese burger 2.5 Kg Large loaf of bread 1 Kg Half a kilo of hard cheese 6 Kg Small beef steak 2 Kg A banana, orange or apple: 0.08 Kg Box of 6 eggs 1.8 Kg Pint of milk – plastic bottle 0.75 Kg; glass bottle from milkman 0.6 Kg Half a kilo of tomatoes: local organic, in season 0.2Kg; imported out of season 4.5 Kg; UK out of season from heated greenhouse 25Kg!! Ouch! Suggested action Support farmers markets, beg some produce from friends who grow their own (and maybe some practical tips to get you started), local veg shops, and milkmen. Today try and use locally produced, organic food without plastic wrappings. Home grown garden and allotment produce are brilliant. Can you do without meat? Don’t cheat by using food you bought yesterday and unwrapped!
OPERATION NOAH’S OIL FAST 2010
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Homes 13 kg
Accounts for over 1/3 of our personal carbon usage.
We’ve kindly chosen the beginning of October, hopefully a time of year when we don’t need our home heating turned on – gas, oil and electric are generally all interlinked with oil production I’m afraid. Anything that uses electricity in the home will require oil inputs. The biggest users of electricity are tumble dryers, fridges, freezers and washing machines. Large flat screen TVs gobble up power. What can you switch off for the Oil Fast – TV, toaster, dish washer, stove? Kettle is a bit more challenging. Use a thermos for any spare boiling water if you do put it on.
Heating hot water and radiators in an average home with gas central heating uses 6Kg CO2 a day Daily electricity usage in an average home is 4.5 Kg CO2 Boiling a full kettle on gas stove 0.05 Kg or in electric kettle 0.07 Kg Brief shower using efficient gas boiler to heat water 0.1 Kg; Typical electric shower 0.5 Kg; Lengthy power shower 1.5 Kg Washing machine load at 40, dried outside 0.7 Kg; load at 40 and tumbled dried 2.5Kg Washing up – by hand with solar heated water – almost zero, with a bowl of warm water 0.3 Kg, in dishwasher 0.7 Kg Toilet roll – recycled paper 0.5 Kg, non recycled luxury paper 0.8 Kg Suggested action Eye up your friends and neighbours. Anyone with PV panels on the roof will be benefiting from home powered renewable energy. If the sun is shining it will also be free of charge too. Ask if you can fill up your thermos – or cook your meal with them. Ask about the technology too. If you’ve signed up for green, renewable energy from an electricity supplier (such as Ecotricity, Good Energy etc) you can also use electricity with a clear conscience. If you haven’t, switch over quickly before the Oil fast begins.
OPERATION NOAH’S OIL FAST 2010
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Water
According to a 2001 report of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic are expended in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water each year.
Like food, water looks so harmless and clean. Surely nothing to do with oil. Wrong on three counts. Purifying our water supplies uses considerable energy. Water travels into our homes along plastic pipes. Thirdly lots of people like to buy clean water in plastic bottles. Ouch!! Please don’t.
Average daily consumption of water is just under 0.5Kg CO2 Five toilet flushes (6 – 8 litres)
0.1Kg
A 500 ml plastic bottle of water
0.5Kg
Suggested action Ask your water company for Hippos and flush savers to give out. Drink tap water, Think about installing a water meter. Use water butts for watering the garden. Flush only when necessary between friends!
Stuff & Clothes
60% of the energy associated with a piece of clothing is spent in washing and drying it. Over its lifetime, a T shirt can account for 9 lbs. of carbon dioxide emissions.
Have a look around your room or home. What are the things you use everyday that are made of plastic or synthetic fabrics or products? Chairs, phones, computers, office files, CDs, CD players, TVs, plastic storage boxes. Many of our clothes in the UK are imported from round the world, often made using cheap, sometimes exploitative labour. Clothes dyes are based on oil. In addition oil is used to power the machines that produce the clothes and to ship them around the world. Fairly traded cottons and UK made clothing from natural fibres will reduce the oil cost of our clothes, but unless we produce our own cotton and wool, it’s hard to avoid some oil in their production. Buy clothes to last and bear in mind their oil cost when you go shopping.
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The average laptop uses around 10 tonnes of CO2 in its production A single web search over a few minutes 2 gms, sending an email 4 gms Newspapers (recycled): 0.3 Kg Guardian Weekly; Tabloid sized 0.5 Kg, Daily full sized 0.8 Kg, Weekend quality paper 1.8Kg (4Kg if sent to landfill) Cotton jeans 6Kg Leather shoes 15 Kg, Crocs 1.5 Kg Suggested action Can you choose clothes to wear today that do not contain synthetic materials? Natural colours are even better as little dye will have been used. Are they made in the UK? You may find it sobering to look through your wardrobe and shoes. Do the best you can. We don’t advocate nudity!! We don’t want you to chuck away anything that contains plastic. But value it more. How would you cope if there was no oil left to produce the next upgrade? We need to be conserving some of our oil for all the useful commodities we depend on and finding alterative fuels for transport and heating. Have a ‘stuff’ free day. Leave the plastic behind and live simply without clutter and ‘stuff’. Read a book or newspaper (yes they do involve oil but minimal amounts). Talk to people in person rather than by phone or email.
OPERATION NOAH’S OIL FAST 2010
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FUN!
Computers, televisions, electronic equipment and chargers all use electricity when they are plugged in, even if they are turned off.
Do have lots of fun today, but please choose things that don’t depend on power and plastic. Avoid fun that includes the use of oil as power as an essential. For example; cinemas, shopping, 10 pin bowling or swimming in indoor heated pools. If we’ve benefited from using roads, community buildings, telephones, electricity and water today – then we are participating in the ongoing oil cost of our infrastructure – 1.5 Kg that we can do little to influence.
3 hours TV watching - Small LCD 0.1 Kg; Large LCD 2.5 Kg; Large plasma 0.6Kg Pint of beer 0.3 Kg Locally brewed cask ale; 0.5 Kg Bottled beer in the pub (0.9 Kg if imported and from a shop) Bottle of wine - UK 0.4 Kg; European 1 Kg; America/Australian 1.5 Kg Suggested action Go for a walk or a cycle ride, arrange a rounders/cricket match, plan a picnic, try sketching, share a meal together, find a friend who can provide a nature lesson.
Statistics based on information from ‘How to live a low Carbon life’ by Chris Goodall and ‘How bad are bananas?’ by Mike Berner s-Lee – both of which are highly recommended. ON takes responsibilities for any inaccuracies and all figures are approximate for ease of adding up.
BY ISABEL CARTER 2010
OPERATION NOAH’S OIL FAST 2010
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Operation Noah – Oil fast Use this table to record your actions during the fast. For some of them you will be able to work out the approximate oil saved in Kg of CO2 emissions.
TRAVEL
SAVED HOMES
FOOD
STUFF & CLOTHES
WATER
FUN
TOTAL
TOTAL
SAVED
Average daily UK consumption is 40Kg CO2. If you are already trying to live sustainably your daily consumption may be nearer 25 or 30Kg. Subtract your fast results today from your daily consumption. Carbon/Oil saving 40Kg minus total saved = OPERATION NOAH’S OIL FAST 2010
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