Being green is a mindset and a lifestyle that some people embrace and some just don’t get. There are small and big ways to ensure that your presence on the earth is less felt, for example whenever I go to Mac Donald’s I fill only one plastic tub with tomato sauce and if I need more I’ll go refill the same container. It may seem like a small gesture but it’s an effort that not many people would consider while wolfing down their mac-meal.
In an age where recycling has become the responsibility of major corporations and eco-friendliness is admired there are all kinds of ways for people, individuals or in groups, to combat greenhouse gases, carbon footprints and other pollution. But just how far would you go to save the planet we all live on?
Kristina Chew of Care2 recently reported on a bizarre case of saving electricity in a UK town called Redditch in Worcestershire. The town has apparently proposed an altogether disturbing way to save around $22 000 a year by heating its Abbey Stadium sports centre and swimming pool. There is a crematorium nearby to the sports facility and in order to save costs on electricity bills and to set a precedent by reducing its carbon footprint, Redditch proposes to use the heat from the former facility.
Personally the idea of swimming in a pool, or using a facility, that uses heat from such an unusual source is both intriguing and repulsive. In the name of being green I can accept that this project is an innovative way for the operation to reduce its energy usage, but the idea of that heat coming from the burning of human bodies? I guess anything goes in the plight to saving our world.
Understandably it’s not clear how people would actually feel about the project. Simon Thomas, a funeral director at Thomas Brothers funeral parlour, told The Guardian: “I don’t know how comfortable people would feel about the swimming pool being heated due to the death of a loved one, I think it’s a bit strange and eerie.”
But there are those who have stated that the use of the energy is a much better arrangement than letting it go to waste. And if you come to think about it, there’s no way that the use of the energy will be in any way unhealthy or disrespectful; it’s just hot air. I wonder what Captain Planet might think about this proposal?
Jade Scully is a copywriter excited about writing copy and stories, blogging about the world and editing. She currently and regularly publishes her stories on a number of blogs. Jade loves animals and hopes to begin writing copy for the animal rescue charity TEARS as her contribution to the cause.
