The Ethical Man - Newsnight Tonight (A Year Long Challenge)

[Shirley]

This looks interesting - they are inviting suggestions either by mail or via the website - perhaps we could also put any suggestions here?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/n ... 736228.stm

I am the ethical man
By Justin Rowlatt
BBC Newsnight


I want to be clear about one thing right from the start - it wasn't my idea to become Newsnight's "ethical man".


I'm new to the programme. I started full time at the beginning of February, and on my first day the editor, Peter Barron, called me into his office.

What did I think about the idea of a journalist trying to live as ethical a lifestyle as possible over the course of a year, he wanted to know.

What did I think? It was my first day; I thought it was a great idea!

That's why, with the help and guidance of one of the programme's finest producers, Sara Afshar, I am about to embark on a new life. But first I've got a question: what on earth is an "ethical lifestyle"?

Lifestyle check

I reckon my family already tick a few "ethical boxes" - admittedly, largely thanks to the influence of my wife, Bee.

We get organic fruit and vegetables delivered each week (by an LPG powered vehicle, the company assures us). The same company supplies us with locally sourced eggs, bacon and milk. Other food and household supplies we get from the supermarket and I'll pick up a few extras from a convenience store on the way home from work. By the end of the week our council recycling box is usually full.

We do have a car - a two litre petrol estate - but we hardly ever use it; just for shopping and trips on the weekend with our two young daughters, Eva and Zola.

My wife and I take public transport to work and the girls walk to school. We usually have two foreign holidays a year but, since the girls were born, more often than not these will be in Europe.

Ethical guru

Not bad, I think, perhaps a little smugly - and then I meet Leo Hickman.

Leo knows a thing or two about ethical living - he's written a couple of books on the subject - and I'm hoping he'll become something of an "ethical guru".

Ethical living, he tells me, means thinking through every single aspect of my life and considering the impact all my actions and decisions have on the environment and on other people.

Clearly this is going to be a bigger project than I first thought. But I am not about to plough up the lawn for potatoes and start breeding pigs. This "experiment" is not about running off to the country to live the Good Life.

What we want to explore is what a pretty ordinary family can do to reduce their impact on the environment without - in my case - moving out of my terraced house in central London.

Oh, and one other thing. I'm told that I have to pick up the tab for any changes I need to make to my lifestyle in the course of this project. Well, in that case Peter, that wind turbine will probably have to wait.

Carbon footprint

So where to start? Obviously I can't change everything at once so here's the deal - every month I will take a different area of my life and try and give it a complete ethical overhaul. And I'm hoping that you - Newsnight's viewers - will help me.

The first area of my life to get an ethical audit is going to be my home. How much of a so-called "carbon footprint" does our house stamp upon the earth?

I want to hear from anyone who can help me. Do you have any advice for me as I take my first tentative steps towards a more ethical life? Do you live in a low energy home, for example?

Perhaps you have devised some novel way of heating or powering your home. Maybe you know someone who has come up with a revolutionary way of saving energy? Or - and this is my producer Sara's favourite - perhaps you would like to see me undertake some devilishly tough ethical task.

If so we want to hear from you. Quite possibly we'll also want to visit you, and maybe even feature your ethical lifestyle on Newsnight.

Send you advice, suggestions and - yes, Sara - tasks to us via the form below. You can also write to:

The ethical man
BBC Newsnight
Room G680
Television Centre
Wood Lane
London W12 7RJ

[glenniedragon]

I've posted a feedback form to him- I've suggested he joins the forum! we wait and see!

kind thoughts
Deb

[Shirley]

Deb - you are a genius!! Nice one mate.

Shirlzxx

[glenniedragon]

[ina]

I've nicked your idea and sent him the same piece of advice... The more often he reads it, the more likely he is to take it up! (I hope.)

I've also suggested Donnachadh McCarthy's book "Saving the planet without costing the earth", as that's a Londoner like himself who has a lot of good advice for the urban situation. I'm just reading it myself and find that most of the stuff that's appropriate for me (i.e. rural, no kids) I do already. No windturbine yet, though. If it was my own house, I'd think about it - or is there a mobile turbine that I could take with me when I have to move out???

[Shirley]

Ina

Someone on another forum suggested turbines for yachts might be viable - I've not researched this as yet though. There is bound to be something like it though but how much it would cost - bound to be expensive if it's designed for yachts.

I wonder if there is something that people with houseboats use? Or travelling folk - I wonder! We had a fantastic family come and pitch near us from time to time in Herefordshire but they used a generator for their power.

[ina]

Have to look into that! Actually, our farm manager (who is more or less my landlord, or rather the representative of my landlord) is really getting into this energy saving business... He's just reading a book on the oil crisis, and offered to lend it to me when he's finished - I'll lend him a lot of other books - so maybe I can get him interested in that! It really would look good for the institute, too, if they had renewable energy installations.

[Shirley]

It certainly would be good for the institute!!

Did you see in the paper last week that the MacRobert Trust has been given the go ahead to build some eco-homes at Tarland.

[ina]

Haven't even picked up the Sunday paper yet... I'll look at that, sounds very interesting!

[ina]

The BBC are really getting into this ethical living thing, aren't they! Today at lunchtime, You and Yours, interview with Leo Hickman, who's been trying to live an ethical lifestyle since some time in 2004. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours ... _fri.shtml

Have there been any news about this other bloke, who's been recommended to frequent SSish by several of us?

[Shirley]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/n ... 748934.stm

And NOT a mention of SSISH in any of the feedback posts

[Shirley]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/n ... 758834.stm

the ethical man's diary!

[Shirley]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/n ... 745102.stm

The ethical man's ethical sister speaks!!