Implicit - explicit - complicit
The cottage was interesting. Alongside a fast-flowing river, it had been a part of a mill, and dated to around 1600. The kitchen was the old hen-house, and the barn where we collected anthracite* for the coal*-fired Aga, had once housed 8 cows and a horse. The owner lived next door, and his family had lived there for generations.
All in all, a lovely few days, except... yes, you read that right, we relied on coal to cook our meals, boil a kettle, dry our wet clothes, and warm the house.
This made me think. Last Wednesday, while we were away and stoking the Aga with coal, the climate sceptic Donald Trump was elected the next President of the United States. He is backed by fossil fuel companies and others who also dispute the clear science which explains that burning fossil fuels increases levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to global warming and a changing climate.
Most of the time, our reliance on fossil fuels is well hidden. We turn a light on, not knowing whether that electricity has come from fossil fuels or renewables. Unless we make a conscious decision to switch to a renewables company for our energy, the likelihood is that the electricity we use comes from burning natural gas or coal, which directly contributes to global warming and a changing climate. (These are not the same, although closely linked).
But suddenly, twice a day, I was filling the Aga with anthracite. (Mined in Wales, in fact). I could smell it in the air when I went outside through the kitchen door. The only slight saving grace is that anthracite is the highest ranking form of coal in terms of purity and energy. It's also the scarcest. But, twice a day, I was made explicitly aware of our reliance on fossil fuels, when usually this knowledge is at the back of mind, an implicit awareness. And it made me aware of my complicity in this system of energy, my complicity in warming the planet.
At home, we buy our energy from a renewable energy company, and have done so for 20 years. Our electricity is 100% generated by renewables, and our gas is 10% renewable biogas generated in Britain. Not enough yet! We try to heat our home as little as possible.
If you don't already use renewable energy, please think about doing so. There's so much more that can be done by each of us. Here's a video about mining anthracite in Pennsylvania.
