This time I am well prepared for my Climate Action Group. They arrive en masse - everyone bar Maz's husband, Ralph, who is off at some conference in the US. Maz says she has been thinking hard about flying, because Ralph's company is offering to pay for her on his next trip to New York. Should she go?
Well - what do I know: that the average UK citizen has a bigger carbon footprint from air travel than anyone else in the world? Apparently we are all at it, we Brits. In the three blocks from Maz's house to mine, I doubt there is one person who would turn down a free flight to the Big Apple. Except for me. I stopped flying three years ago. I am tempted to say it was because of my concern for the melting icecaps, but it wasn't. It was because of my health. I was pregnant and fragile and my doctor advised me not to get on that toxic jet to Australia.
Maz is looking at her paperwork. She has been doing a bit of research, she says since the first meeting, and has discovered that her freebie will create as much CO2 in one go as a whole year's car travel. She is sober, head down, no doubt wondering how it will feel to forego Bloomingdales for this year's Christmas shopping. 'I shan't go,' she resolves. Well done, Maz. Perhaps if everyone in Oxford makes her kind of sacrifice, the penguins will have a fighting chance.
I tell Maz she can still have fab holidays without flying, and have fun getting there. Our 12 hour journey to Ireland by train this year had never a dull moment. The kids were free to roam up and down the aisles, make forays to the buffet car and taunt the automatic doors. We had time to watch changes in the landscape, the architecture, the way of life...the sun setting over the Wicklow mountains. There is nothing more romantic than a long train journey.
Hugh doesn't look very convinced by my train travel pitch. Last time, aeroplanes were his chosen subject; I don't think he anticipated things traveling quite this fast away from them.
Hugh confesses that he flies a lot. He and Sharon have taken four short-haul and one long-haul flight this year. He mumbles something about needing to 'do a lot of offsetting'. Then he starts to explain - 'You see, Sharon and I decided long ago - when we retire, we are going to see all those places we have missed out on because of our work, the children, not having enough money...When I was young it was only the rich who could travel, but these days things are much more equal; we have all been given this wonderful opportunity....'
'Do you feel guilty?' says Victoria, gently.
'Well I do, of course I do. I wouldn't be here if I didn't!'
'Do you think you could take the train next time?' I pitch in - eager to offer a solution.
'Well, it's a bit embarrassing... the toilets are just not adequate.'
Ah, you've got me there, Hugh. I suppose one does need a certain level of continence to start enjoying the romance.
Our air travel discussion fizzles out. No one else seems ready to make a confession. So let's move on to supermarkets.
Jenny says what's wrong with supermarkets, if you buy British and organic? I start on about the juggernauts and humungous chilling depots - the system, Jenny, it's the system! Victoria says packing.
Victoria has been trying to engage the manager of our local Co-op about providing more 'bags for life' and fewer condomed cucumbers. She says the Co-op manager is deeply resistant to change, claiming his stock is all dictated by head office. She is chuffed to report that he has 'succeeded a little bit around the edges'. That gets everyone listening. Well, she has been chatting with Carol who does the stock and persuaded her to defy her boss. What, cancel the orders? Well, perhaps...softly, softly. For now, Victoria says, next time we are in the Co-op, just give Carol a nudge about those hessian bags.
Maz says she is considering becoming a vegetarian because meat production is so carbon-intensive. "By cutting out meat and dairy products," she continues, "you can do more to combat greenhouse gases than any other lifestyle change. Besides cutting air travel, of course."
I bet she's right. I was a vegetarian as a teenager and knew all the economic and environmental arguments. But things have lapsed in my life. Where once I would have shunned my mother's spaghetti Bolognese, I now feed it to my own children. Along with the burgers and the chipolata sausages... Maz doesn't have kids; she doesn't have to fight to get good protein into them; it's easier for her to change...These are my feeble excuses as I feel myself withdrawing from a threat to my lifestyle.
People seem tired. It's quite some effort, this choosing-to-change malarky. Victoria says her research into car pooling can wait - if we want to try sharing cars, it's a bit of a minefield...
Tom has said nothing all evening. I wonder how he thinks things are going, from his environmentalist's point of view. Are we getting anywhere near effective action?
Well, says Tom. He feels the group is generally working in the right direction, and he feels very positive. He would like to propose a project for us all - to calculate our carbon footprints before the next meeting. We will start to feel much more in control, much more able to act effectively in our individual situation if we have this information, he says.
Great. We are all up for that. Until next time, then...
