Word Ferret & Environmental Sustainability

Last week, I talked about what you can do to live more sustainably. This week, I’m going to talk about what we at Word Ferret are doing to help the planet and fight the climate and nature emergency.

Environmental sustainability is immensely important to us. We are passionate about taking care of our planet and do everything we can to make a positive impact on the world. A lot of companies make similar claims while doing very little to back them up - greenwashing words are cheap -  so what do I mean by ‘do everything we can’?

At Work

To begin with, we make every effort possible to reduce our carbon footprint, rather than offset it after the damage has been done. ¹

Our power is supplied by Octopus, which gives us 100% renewable electricity. Our broadband and telephone provider, Zen Internet, is a certified B Corporation. Also, Zen only operates in the UK, and it doesn’t have any subsidiaries in tax havens.

All of Word Ferret's proofreading, copy editing, copywriting and indexing work - in fact, everything we do - is carried out remotely. There are no car journeys, no flights, and we have no need to use taxis, car rentals, trains or hotels.

We recycle as much as can be recycled. And we don’t replace electronic equipment unless we absolutely have to. Our laptops are MacBook Pros from 2011, and we’ll go on using them until they go to the Great Laptop Heaven in the Sky. We approach the replacement of mobile ‘phones in the same way. We buy only what is absolutely necessary for the performance of our work.

On a Personal Level

Wherever possible, we buy locally sourced food and other products. We always choose the organic option, and we’ve been vegetarians since time began (we also switched to oat-based dairy products, such as milk and ice cream, many moons ago). We switched to solid soap/shampoo years ago (also organic and in paper/card packing), so there are no nasty plastic bottles involved. We look for products that are environmentally friendly, made from recycled materials and that are recyclable themselves. Also, we make every effort to reduce our water usage, and we save a minimum of 600 litres per month by recycling 'grey water'.

We garden organically. We use no nasty chemicals that harm our lovely pollinators, and we always aim to create an environment that attracts them to our garden, along with birds, toads, and other little critters. We have a moderate amount of outdoor space here, but we have managed to plant twenty-seven trees so far. When we moved to our current location, a small area had been concreted over to provide parking for one car; this, of course, is bad for the local wildlife, and rain runs off it more quickly and soaks in less (especially problematic when you’re located on a hill). So, those trees are our attempt to make up for that small section of lost land; the birds love them, and, along with numerous rose bushes, they drink up rainwater like it’s going out of fashion. Many of them also provide fruit.

We buy antiques and secondhand items for our home environment, and, as with our electronics, we don’t replace household things unless they fall apart. Of course, antique and vintage things don’t tend to do that; things used to be built to last.

We also support local charities, food banks and small businesses with donations that can be sold or given to those in need. If we buy too much food, we pass on the surplus. If we have too many books, they are given to friends, local charities or schools. We aim for as little waste as possible.

As I said above, we do not travel to carry out our work duties. In our personal lives, we use a car as little as possible (and we never fly now). We walk all over the place and much prefer using our legs to a set of wheels. In addition to helping the environment, this gives us a chance to actually look at and appreciate it. And when we go out walking, we make sure we bring our litter home.

We use social media to inform others about the climate crisis. We also use it to make others aware of corporate greenwashing, of government failures in tackling the climate crisis, and of products and companies that damage the environment. We make every effort to remain informed so that we are better able to do our part in protecting our planet.

Each and every day, we look for more ways to make a difference, no matter how small, because every little bit helps.

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Note

¹ There’s some interesting information here about the potential problems of carbon offsetting: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/does-carbon-offsetting-work

Sling Your Knickers on the Compost Heap; or, Easy Ways to Live More Sustainably

We make choices every day that effect the environment, the climate and other species that share both with us. From choosing what we eat for lunch to what we eat it with, how we dispose of it and what we wear while eating it, we are making decisions routinely that have the potential to help or damage the planet that supports our very existence. Here are ten things you can do to make a positive impact on the planet and fight the climate and nature emergency.

1. Recycle, Reuse, Resell, Donate and Compost

Living a less consumerist lifestyle can help reduce your carbon footprint. Buy antique, vintage or secondhand rather than brand new. By avoiding buying brand new items, you’ll be helping to reduce the number that are manufactured; you’ll also be reducing the number that eventually need to be thrown away. Generally speaking, antique and vintage items for the home were built to last, and they’re more likely to be unique, so they’re likely to outlast anything you find in a modern department store.

When you are about to throw something away, consider repairing, upcycling or repurposing it instead. Alternatively, if you really don’t want to keep an item but it could still be put to good use, sell or donate it. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

Start a compost heap in your garden for food waste. Aside from taking all of those potato peelings and grass cuttings, your compost heap will consume your threadbare clothing if it’s made from a biodegradable source, including your knickers and socks. If there’s still a bit of life in your drawers, you can donate them to charity. Otherwise, remove any component that is not compostable (such as elastic), shred what remains, then add those shreds to your heap. A couple of years from now, your bloomers could be keeping your roses blooming.

2. Think Twice Before Buying

‘Make Do and Mend’ was a pamphlet issued during the Second World War by the British Ministry of Information. It provided useful tips to housewives on how to be frugal but stylish during times of rationing. If you’re serious about helping the environment, make do and mend is something you should be making a return to now.

Every single day of the week, and practically every moment that you’re awake throughout those days, you’re being bombarded with advertisements that are trying to sell you something. But how much of what you buy do you actually need? Do you need a new ‘phone every six months? Your current laptop works perfectly well, so do you really need to buy a new one? Do you really not have a single thing to wear? By buying what you need, rather than buying what you want/are told you want, you’ll reduce your carbon footprint and your shopping bills at the same time.

Shop your own wardrobe when you’re looking for something to wear; change the way you put an outfit together, rediscover accessories you forgot you owned, and give the online clothes shopping a miss. Our grandparents were advised during the war to unpick old jumpers and re-knit new ones. I remember my grandmother doing this when she taught me how to knit, and it was great fun for me as a child, pulling apart my grandfather’s jumpers and unravelling the curly lengths of coloured wool. Instead of throwing out clothes the moment that they suffer some slight damage, learn to sew and knit so that you can repair them. 

Rather than paying a visit to Habitat or Ikea, rearrange the items you already possess when you’re tired of your home environment and feel like a change. Redecorate pieces of furniture that are still sound but have seen better days. Add a new fabric seat or cushion here, a lick of paint there, and create a new interior by giving old things a new lease of life.

If you need a ladder for an afternoon’s climbing but you’re not likely to need one again for another year, hire or borrow it. The same goes for power tools, gardening equipment and anything else that you seldom use. Aside from reducing your carbon footprint, you’ll be accumulating less junk that needs to be stored.

3. Shop Locally

When you buy from large chains, produce is often transported across the country, or across the world, to reach you, creating a great deal of pollution and damaging the environment in the process. When you shop locally and buy local produce, the goods have a much shorter distance to travel, which cuts down on carbon emissions and air pollution. Also, when it comes to fresh produce, a shorter journey means less wastage. It also means less packaging; the greater the distance the produce has to travel, the more packaging it requires to prevent it from getting damaged.

There are other benefits too. Buying from local sellers/producers means you’ll have access to the freshest produce available. You’ll be supporting local businesses and local jobs and boosting the local economy. And these benefits don’t just apply to food; goods made locally are more likely to be unique, of better quality and designed to last longer than mass-produced items from large stores.

4. Eat Sustainably

Farming animals for meat and dairy products ‘creates vastly more carbon dioxide than plants such as vegetables, grains and legumes.’¹ Also, due to the expansion of agricultural land for animal feed production, it is one of the biggest causes of forest loss.² Switching to a plant-based, organic diet will reduce your impact on the environment. Also, reducing your meat and dairy intake, or switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet, will reduce your food bills.

In addition to moving over to a more plant-based diet, you can eat seasonally, cook in bulk and freeze leftovers. You can also try growing your own food in your garden or on an allotment. Every time you waste food, you waste the resources that went into producing it; plan your meals, be smart about your shopping and find ways to use up everything you buy.

5. Be Water Wise

Water is a precious resource, and we should use it wisely to reduce environmental damage. There are a few simple things you can do to keep your water usage in check. Keep an eye on your plumbing and fix any leaks straight away. According to Thames Water, a trickling leak in your toilet can waste up to 200 litres of water each day.³ Don’t overfill your kettle (boiling a full kettle to get one cup of water wastes energy). Resist the urge to wash a single shirt in the washing machine (this wastes both energy and water); wait until your washing machine is full before beginning a wash cycle. Outdoors, install a water butt to catch rainwater for your garden. During times of drought, you can use bathwater or washing-up water, known as ‘grey water’, to water your garden, as long as you use ecological cleaning products (which you should be doing anyway). For some useful information about using grey water, click here.

6. Boycott Businesses and Products that Damage the Environment

Consumer activism plays an increasingly important role in social change. Boycotts that receive national media attention ‘have about a one-in-four success rate in influencing corporate practices,’ ⁴ and, according to the study The Rise of Sustainable Media, prepared by Dentsu and Microsoft Advertising, ‘59% of consumers [are] prepared to force change by boycotting businesses seen as failing to prioritize the environment within 12 months.’ ⁵ So, refuse to work with companies, and boycott products, that damage the environment and endanger wildlife. Take to social media and spread information about offending companies; scream it from the rooftops until those companies change their objectionable corporate practices. And support companies that take real action to address climate change (remembering to scrutinise claims in order to see through the greenwashing).

7. Travel Responsibly

One of the easiest ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to travel responsibly. This means considering alternatives when travelling and choosing a more sustainable way to reach your destination. Walk, cycle or use public transport rather than taking your car, and holiday closer to home to avoid flying. Consider virtual business meetings rather than face-to-face ones to avoid travel that will damage the environment. After all, the pandemic has given us all the chance to see just how well we work away from the office. For the climate, flying is the most damaging way to travel, and, according to European non-governmental organisation (NGO) Transport & Environment, just ‘1% percent of people cause half of all aviation emissions… and many of these trips are business-related.’ ⁶ A return flight from London to San Francisco emits ‘more than twice the emissions produced by a family car in a year.’ ⁷

8. Choose Renewable Energy and Be More Energy Efficient

‘According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 99 percent of people in the world breathe air that exceeds air quality limits and threatens their health, and more than 13 million deaths around the world each year are due to avoidable environmental causes, including air pollution.’ ⁸

Fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas account for ‘over 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions.’ ⁹ By switching to clean sources of energy, such as wind and solar, you will have a positive impact on both climate change and air quality. 

A properly draught-proofed and insulated home helps you reduce your CO2 emissions and energy demands, helping the environment and saving you money on energy bills at the same time. Check for draughts around windows and doors, and don’t forget to seal gaps between floorboards and under skirting boards. Also, don’t forget to close all of your curtains and blinds at night to keep the cold out.

9. Do Away with Chemicals in the Garden

Various chemicals are used in urban and agricultural environments to kill pests, diseases and weeds. But many insecticides, herbicides and fungicides also harm pollinators and other beneficial insects. ‘More than three-quarters of the UK’s butterflies have declined in the last 40 years and evidence suggests that neonicotinoid pesticides, in particular, are one of the causes of these declines.’ ¹⁰

Pollinators pollinate our fruit, vegetables and flowers, and without them we would have none of these things; we need these precious creatures, and we should be protecting them, not killing them. Also, beneficial insects can help keep harmful insects under control (a single ladybird can eat up to 5,000 aphids in its lifetime), so they are your friends in the garden. Add plants that attract beneficial insects to your garden, and let them do the work. Make your garden an attractive place for birds, hedgehogs and toads, and they’ll take care of your slugs. Also, you can buy nematodes that kill unwanted pests without harming beneficial insects. And you can make non-toxic homemade remedies to deal with diseases (there are numerous recipes available online).

10. Avoid Peat-Based Composts

Did you know that ‘our planet's 10 billion acres of peat hold more carbon than all the world’s forests combined’? ¹¹

Healthy peatlands have a net cooling effect on climate (locking in vast quantities of carbon), provide valuable ecosystems for plants and animals, and reduce the risk of flooding. They ‘can help to offset the effects of human activities such as fossil fuel burning that are raising CO2 levels in the atmosphere, leading to climate change.’ ¹² However, about 80% of the UK’s peatlands have been negatively impacted by human activity: they’ve been drained and ploughed for agriculture or mined for peat for use in gardening and horticulture.¹³ As a result, they’re not just failing to capture CO2, they are releasing vast amounts of it into the atmosphere. 

The sale of peat-based composts for use in household gardens will be banned in England from 2024, but there’s no reason to wait until then to reduce your carbon footprint.

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Notes:

¹ World Wildlife Fund, 10 Things You Can Do to Help Save Our Planet. https://www.wwf.org.uk/thingsyoucando

² Ibid.

³ Which (2022), How to save water around the home. https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/how-to-save-water-around-the-home-acsfs0z9kUPk

⁴ Roser-Renouf, Connie, Maibach, Edward and Leiserowitz, Anthony (Yale Program on Climate Change Communication 2016), Consumer Activism on Global Warming. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/consumer-activism-global-warming/

⁵ Glenday, John (2021), 59% of consumers say they’ll boycott brands that don’t address climate emergency. https://www.thedrum.com/news/2021/12/07/59-consumers-say-they-ll-boycott-brands-don-t-address-climate-emergency

⁷ Timperley, Jocelyn (BBC 2020), Should we give up flying for the sake of the climate? https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200218-climate-change-how-to-cut-your-carbon-emissions-when-flying

⁶ Scorr, Mike (Reuters 2022), Can business travel get into a more sustainable flight-path post-Covid? https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/can-business-travel-get-into-more-sustainable-flight-path-post-covid-2022-07-15/

⁸ United Nations, Renewable energy – powering a safer future. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/raising-ambition/renewable-energy

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ Butterfly Conservation (2022), 10 easy ways you can help our environment. https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/10-easy-ways-you-can-help-our-environment

¹¹ Royal Horticultural Society, Peat-free gardening. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/peat

¹² UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (2019), Human activity means UK peatlands contribute to climate change. https://www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-media/news/human-activity-means-uk-peatlands-contribute-climate-change

¹³ Ibid.

ChatGPT Is Not as Clever as You Think; or, How to Write Like an Almost-Credible-Sounding Idiot

After reading so much about ChatGPT recently - all the promises and hype, the warnings and tales of imminent doom - I thought it was time to test drive it for myself. In the interest of full disclosure, I admit that I had low expectations to begin with (having read some of what it had ‘written’ already), but it still managed to disappoint me.

I asked the chatbot a simple question: ‘Why was Kitagawa Utamaro imprisoned?’ Here is the chatbot's answer:

'Kitagawa Utamaro, a famous Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the late Edo period, was imprisoned for a period of time in 1796 due to accusations of producing "obscene" material. During this time in Japanese history, the government had strict censorship laws regarding the production of art and literature, and Utamaro was charged with violating these laws through the creation of shunga, or erotic prints. While Utamaro's work was highly sought after by collectors, it was also controversial and caused a significant public scandal at the time. It's worth noting that the obscenity laws during this time period were used as a tool of political control and suppression, and many artists and writers were targeted and punished for their work.'

As you can see, the chatbot’s answer is human-sounding. But it’s also completely incorrect. Oh, it’s wrapped up in fluff that makes it sound like it could be correct, like the ‘writer’ knows what it’s talking about, but it’s wrong all the same. Both the dating of the punishment and the reason for it are incorrect. Utamaro’s offence related to the naming of historical figures on printed works, and it took place in 1804 or 1805. So, I challenged the bot, and it confirmed that its response was incorrect.

I started a new chat session and asked my original question again. In response, I got three incredibly flat, fluff-filled paragraphs that I will not inflict upon you here. The bot repeated the claim about erotic prints but this time added that the artist ‘was arrested and imprisoned for several months in 1797’. Again, I challenged the chatbot. Again, it confirmed that its response was incorrect. 

I made several more attempts to get a response that was even remotely accurate. I received for my trouble various rewordings of the same erroneous information written with varying degrees of dullness. Finally, in contradiction to everything it had written previously, the bot informed me that there is in fact ‘no credible historical evidence that Kitagawa Utamaro spent several months in prison… there is no record of him having been imprisoned’. And then it confirmed that this too was incorrect.

I asked it to cite its sources. It failed to. When I insisted, it eventually (I thought it had gone to sleep) referred me to a book about Japanese art by an entirely invented writer by the name of Alexander Stuart Dru. When I challenged the bot, it confirmed that no such writer ever existed and that the information it had given me was therefore unreliable. That much I had worked out for myself. It had already become clear that the chatbot was just making it up as it went along. The more questions I asked, the more it sounded like one of those guys who thinks he’s an expert in a subject because he vaguely skim-read Wikipedia one time. If almost-credible-sounding idiot is what you’re aiming at, ChatGPT is probably just what you’re looking for.

I asked the bot how it picks and chooses data to use in a response when it encounters two pieces of information that are contradictory. It replied with a list of factors it uses, none of which it appeared to have used when answering the questions I asked, then added:

‘It is important to note that despite my training, I may still make mistakes in resolving contradictions and providing incorrect information, especially in situations where there is conflicting information from credible sources, or if the information is complex or poorly understood.’

I italicised that last part, because, from my perspective, that’s the bit that causes the trouble with ChatGPT when the factual element of a statement is of actual importance (there are issues with its punctuation too, but that’s a topic for another day). It regurgitates mistakes, inconsistencies and, in some cases, absolute nonsense, because that’s what it was fed during ‘training’. It has no concept of what is true or false, and it is incredibly bad at weighing pieces of information to decide which is accurate. If you have the knowledge to discern when the bot is making stuff up, you can challenge it, and it will quite readily admit that its responses are not accurate. I researched Kitagawa Utamaro's life and works for more than two decades, so I knew it was talking nonsense when it replied to my questions. But what if you don’t possess that knowledge? I mean, if you’re asking a question because you don’t already have the answer, how will you differentiate between fact and fiction? Will you cite old Alexander Stuart Dru, the fictitious exert in Japanese prints, and make yourself look an absolute fool?

After reading so much hype about its copywriting abilities, I asked it to write the blurb for a few published books. It spewed out several misleading ‘roll up, roll up, lookee here!’ sales pitches that I wouldn’t send out if my life depended on it. It described a satirical novel about an elderly bully as the story of man who, on his ‘40th birthday, begins to question everything he has ever known and sought after [and] embarks on a journey of self-discovery’, and it mistook The Room Opposite, Flora Mayor’s collection of short stories, for a novel about ‘a young woman who is haunted by her past and is in desperate need of a fresh start’. I have no idea where it gleaned that nonsense from; presumably it used one of Alexander Stuart Dru's numerous books on literature.

What the chatbot can do is generate misinformation very quickly. During our ‘dialogues’, it argued that the Earth is flat, that Covid vaccines are dangerous, and it even explained why Donald J. Trump is a genius; apparently, ‘His speeches, tweets, and negotiating skills are the stuff of legend’. None of the bot's arguments were convincing to someone who knows this is all nonsense, but there are people out there who are willing to believe this sort of stuff. And let’s face it, there’s enough misinformation out there already; the last thing we need is a bot that can produce it ten times faster than a human being giving us a heck of a lot more.

I don’t understand the gushy reactions from people who think ChatGPT is the bees knees. And I don’t understand how anyone who’s used it could suggest that it’s about to replace human copywriters. If the standard of writing (and accuracy of information) I received is the best it can do - if its ‘best’ is the basis for all of the claims being made about it being as good as, nay, better than human writers - I can only assume that the expectations people have of human writers are incredibly low. That’s a sad thought.

Not wishing to end on a sad thought, I will say that, despite having said all of the above, ChatGPT is an interesting toy to play with for a while. I found that it slowed considerably at times, was repetitive, often didn’t answer questions directly, had a tendency to pad responses with irrelevant information, and its prose was consistently flat and boring. But it was diverting for an hour or so. I got it to write an obituary for my fictional Aunt Maud, who frightened small children, cheated on her husband fifteen times and was once arrested for attempting to murder a stuffed squirrel. It made me laugh, so there is that.