Soup of the Day

We’re all ‘Crap At The Environment’, so what can we do?

Mark Watson, author, actor, comedian and closet environmentalist (IMHO) has launched a new initiative on MySpace to generate social awareness about the environment and environmental issues. Obviously being very concerned about our planets health myself, added to the fact that Siân now refers to me as ‘Dave Angel, eco-warrior‘, it is probably no surprise that I was very interested in what Mark had to say on the subject.

To be honest, I didn’t know much about Mark Watson until this year when I started listening to his show ‘Mark Watson Makes the World Better‘ on BBC Radio 4, which in turn I only discovered after going to see Tim Minchin at the Salford Lowry Theatre and following him (not physically) to Mark Watson’s show on Radio 4. So… By this point I was hoping to have got an introduction about how we’re all ‘Crap At The Environment‘, but currently have only managed to re-enforce the six degrees of seperation theory and name-drop some famous people I wished I knew personally. Let me continue…

‘Crap At The Environment‘ (CATE) is a new project launched by Mark Watson on his MySpace page. Mark has realised that we are crap at environmental issues as a nation, even as a planet. This isn’t because we do not care, or believe the action of one will not change the actions of billions, but rather we have no conception of how to achieve anything to help the environment. Just as you think you have a faint idea of what to do, the whole thing is made more confusing when one group of people say one thing and then another group say the complete opposite. I mean where does one start?

The real problem with being green is that it conjures up images of hairy weed-smoking hippies, or hairy weed-smoking hippies disguised as scientists. Imagine Time Team, accept the presenters are more interested in the planet than someone that died over a thousand years ago - for the record, I do enjoy a little Time Team on a Sunday afternoon.

Mark, who does not have a beard, is on a mission to remove this long haired, beard sporting, pipe smoking image and replace it with a much more accessible and ‘fun’ message that we can all identify with. The CATE project will eventually produce a ‘cult book’ and hopefully lots more awareness about environmental issues. But the real power of CATE comes from the mini-projects that are growing up around it. Nicola, a MySpace friend of Mark, has started a site called ‘Pimp My Plant Pot‘ to promote growing your own plants whether you have a massive estate at your disposal or a small window box. Lucky Londoners can even have their specially pimped plant pot delivered by Nicola herself. The progress of the plants will be tracked and reported on Nicola’s web site.

All of this has got Siân very excited, especially as Siân has been very busy being the complete opposite of Shirley Angel (Dave Angel’s wife, who always undermined Dave’s efforts) by being an eco warrior in her very own right. Recently Siân has successfully launched a petition on the 10 Downing Street e-petitions web site, calling for all investment towards Trident to be redirected to sustainable energy projects for the UK. But her pride and joy has to be her balcony garden that she nurtures through wind, rain, snow (she wishes) and glorious sunshine. You will be able to see more of Siân’s garden on her MySpace page soon.

For my own part, Mark’s site has inspired me to get on with setting up the big project for this summer that has yet to be named, but for now I’ll refer to it as ‘Our big green european holiday’. The prototype for this holiday was completed two weeks ago with a short trip to Brussels and Amsterdam using the European high-speed railway network rather than aeroplanes. The next trip will take in many countries, the exact details of which are still being hammered out, plus the whole thing will be recorded using a blog and with some video cameras (budget permitting). I will also provide a carbon pile, juxtaposing the amount of carbon we have used on the train compared to flying. More on all of this very soon. Hopefully Mark and I can compare notes on this as he is going to ensure he takes the train rather than the plane to every UK tour date this year. If you’re going to see him, make sure you ask him how he got there!

But if you’re a MySpace user (or not), please visit the CATE project and read a little more of what Mark Watson is setting up for us all. I feel this is going to be a very worthwhile experiment that will put smiles on the faces of all of us. Then go and get yourself a plant from Nicola!