Green fatigue

So the power crisis is officially over for another year - that's a relief. The power conservers, or eco-Nazis, happily tell you what you should and shouldn't do to be 'green' and love to point the moral finger if you step out of line. It is so easy to feel smug and to criticise others.

Just as the born again anti-smoking brigade make me want to go out and light up a fag although I have never smoked in my life, these people make me want to mix my compost with my plastics, although I have been recycling since we gave bundles of paper to the Scouts and rinsed our milk bottles and put them on our doorsteps as children.

Nothing in this eco-crusade is straight-forward. We grew our own vegetables when we had a garden. We had to irrigate them with water. We now live in an apartment in town - we sold the car to reduce pollution and so had to move closer to the city. There is no garden for vegetables, but there is no car to wash and consume the precious water.

The businesses in town leave their lights on so that the reflections look pretty in the water - and they do. I like to look at them. The streetlights illuminate my late night run or cycle ride, which I do outdoors, on the streets, not in a gym with bright lights, pumping music, and blazing equipment.

I take baths rather than showers. I lie in the bath and relax for hours. If I stood under the shower for that long I would waste a lot more hot water. I already pay exorbitant prices for hot water, which the power company turns off at certain times when they think I don't need it. Will they start dictating when I have to turn my lights out and go to bed? Baths are a simple pleasure, and one for which I am censured.

But I am saving power every day by choosing not to have children. I don't put on extra loads of washing and drying. I don't buy cheap plastic toys and clothing from sweatshops in China that will end in landfills in two weeks when the little darlings have outgrown them. I don't leave the heating on in the house all day because they need to be kept a certain temperature. I don't drive a 4WD to the shops because I have such precious cargo on board that I have a right to guzzle resources and kill anything I come into contact with.

My non-existent children will not grow up to drive cars, burn fuel, fly around the world, and heat and light houses or offices. They will not buy and dispose of umpteen electical gadgets and telecommunication devices. They will not consume food which uses precious resources to produce. So let me have my bath without opprobrium.

My friend calls this backlash against the holier than thou environmental set, 'green fatigue'. It's an apt expression. The escalators in the publc library were turned off to conserve power. This action saves very little power, but it does force the elderly (for that is the largest proportion of library users) to walk up the stairs or plead for assistance to use the lift. The people who did this are the same people who oppose wind farms because they don't look pretty and they make noise.

Meanwhile mothers drive their children to cafes where they spill fluffies down the front of their new clothes. The pitter patter of tiny feet produces great big carbon footprints. And they welcome their friend's babies to the world with cards made from recycled paper and a superior smile because they are being good to the planet.