Ginger Leaf Living

I don’t know how many of you have questioned the name of this blog. It is in fact not named after the leaves of a ginger plant, lovely as I’m sure they are, but represent the 3 strands of this blog. Leaf represents the environment and nature, Living represents the change to a sustainable lifestyle and Ginger represents the social and personal views offered, as I myself am indeed a ginger/redhead/auburn/orange/red/copper…… And while this may not be relevant to sustainability, with this platform I wanted to share something that has been on my mind for a long time – is Gingerism a thing?

Red hair only makes up 1-2% of the global human population, making it a rare and beautiful phenomenon. With minorities, there always comes differences felt between people, and this is particularly true for redheads in regards to hair. The following are just some of the ways I have experienced ‘Gingerism’ in my life which may be true for others as well….

• Changing of conversation when you walk in the room – usually something along the lines of “That reminds me, X has had a nightmare with his hair dye this week, it practically looks ginger” or ” I don’t really like my new hair colour, but at least it’s not ginger” – often implying that having ginger hair is the height of hair related disasters and to avoided at all costs.
• Being confused with other redheads/grouping together redheads – I’ve had this happen with teachers mixing up my name with other red headed students (“Sorry, I mixed up my gingers!”) and next door neighbours confusing redheads walking near our houses with me. While genuine mistakes do happen, this can sometimes lead to a feeling of loss of individuality and ignorance of individual identities for redheads.
• Bullying – probably the most obvious, and most common for anyone who is slightly ‘different’. Included name calling, nicknames, teasing etc…….. people shouting “Her head is on fire!” when you get up in assembly to collect an award, that sort of thing.
• Misunderstanding – having red hair is a natural trait caused by the recessive MC1R, but from the amount of times I’ve been asked by hair dressers and others “Wow, is it natural?”, “How long has it been like this?”, ” Why are your eyebrows a different colour?” I get the feeling that red hair is largely misunderstood.
• Representation – a few examples include the ginger hair emoji being launched after other hair colours were already available and at first only on certain devices, before they were finally released further 👩‍🦰👨‍🦰 and beauty products not including shade ranges for redheads such as matching hair colours, eyebrow products or products for very fair skin tones.
• ‘Harmless’ jokes – jokes about redheads are a basic part of banter in the UK, it is easy to make ginger jokes because its not really discrimination is it? One teacher I actually did like at school made an unfortunate comment about embryo screening, that it could be used to wipe out undesirable traits “like gingers”. While he did apologise after, he still seemed shocked when I said I’d be happy to have a child with red hair. At the time I just laughed along with everyone else, but in the years that have followed, it struck me that this comment probably wouldn’t have been so accepted if it had been about race or gender, but because he mentioned gingers, nobody minded.

This post aimed to show that there is discrimination faced by redheads, and that as a society we need to show more kindness and compassion and accept rather than fight against our differences. The most important point I must make though, is that while I believe Gingerism is a thing and should be better tackled, it does not compare to the injustice faced by other minority groups. As a redhead, I am still likely to be given a fair job interview without bias, I am unlikely to be stopped by police regularly, I am less likely to be killed in hate crimes, I am likely to find the products I need in a shop. All things that are a part of our institutionally racist society. So while we must question how we treat people with red hair and do better, the big institutional actions must focus on tackling racism and sexism in our society.

I have been wanting to share these stories and views for a long time, so if you read this far I really appreciate it. If are are not red headed, maybe just take a moment today to consider how you could make redheads feel more included in the future and if you need to change any of your actions. If you have red hair, I’d like to take this moment to remind you that no matter what you have experienced, your hair is beyond beautiful and is a gift to have. What makes us different, makes us beautiful 👩‍🦰♥

Ya what?

Sustainability, eco-friendly, green, conscious, ethical, clean…. all words we hear a lot of right now. But how do we know which words are translating into actions and which are empty? Is this just a trend or marketing or can it really be sustained?

Recently, I read March’s issue of British Vogue – in their designer and business profile pages I was surprised to see so many companies claiming to be sustainable. From swimwear to sandals to designer clothing, profile after profile contained phrases, including ‘sustainability’ or ‘environmentally conscious’. And you’d think this would make for hopeful and happy reading, and to some extent it does. But this examples shows us the importance of understanding and spotting buzzwords and greenwashing, and filtering them out from companies really making changes.

In recent years, sustainability has become a buzzword used in many areas of life, which while is great for generating awareness, can remove our focus from what is urgent. Sustainability is defined as the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or maintaining an ecological balance, in order to leave resources for future generations. We often think of the traditional view of sustainable living, where people only took from nature the exact amount they needed and only took what nature could afford to give by living in tune with the seasons. So now it is important that we translate these views to modern life.

Although the focus of this blog is on environmental sustainability, it is important to note that there are many other types of sustainability. In our daily lives, that might be how long you can sustain a certain style of work without burning out, or the sustainability of a business that has not adapted to modern needs. We need to think holistically about all kinds of sustainability in order to make it work effectively.

As an example, what type of bag do you think is the most sustainable option to take to your supermarket shop: a plastic bag, a paper bag or a cotton bag? The answer is not as simple as it seems…. Though we think of plastic as the ultimate environmental enemy, it takes much less energy to manufacture than a paper bag, and you would need to use a cotton bag around 130 times to make it a more environmentally-friendly option than a single use plastic bag. While paper may be easier to biodegrade, plastic is more durable, and while plastic can be more polluting to our land and seas, paper and cotton require lots of land and resources to produce. ( See Plastic or paper: Which bag is greener? – BBC News for facts and visuals). So what is the most sustainable option? Use whichever option you have to hand and reuse it as many times as possible before replacing it or getting rid of it. Sustainability does not come from a claim on a product’s packaging, but from action and the way we use these items.

So what is the point of all this waffle? To create real action we need to focus on the actions that will make the biggest difference. In regards to climate change, urgency is needed in reducing and stopping greenhouse gas emissions to halt global warming. While it captures our human emotions to see animals caught in litter or the impacts of plastic pollution, just swapping out plastic alternatives will unfortunately not impact as significantly on preventing rising temperatures. To fight climate change we need leaders to keep to emissions targets and individuals to reduce their carbon footprint, then we can also work on restoring our natural habitats and reducing waste etc….

So the biggest message of this post is that we can be improving and be doing better at the same time. We can be cutting out single-use plastic and still need to work on our vehicle emissions, or maybe we have made environmentally-conscious decisions around our diet, but still fly long-haul or use disposable razors. So just because we buy a product that claims to be sustainable doesn’t mean that our entire lifestyle is. Get comfortable with continually learning and changing and adaption will come smoother.

Sustainable living is a long-term goal, and like any other future aim, takes time, practice and cannot be fixed quickly. This post is not one of pessimism, but hopefully makes you question what products and actions are actually helping you create a sustainable lifestyle and which ones only contain a few ‘green’ components or use sustainability as a selling strategy.

If we act now.

If.

Such a small word that excuses so much. As if we have a choice: face the problem or catch that plane and deal with it tomorrow. As if there is still time.

Climate change has been introduced as a concept and put forward as an issue for a long time, with early discoveries in the early 20th century, concerns in the 1960s and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) formed in 1988, to name a few key milestones. We have been told repeatedly the data from climate scientists, taught about how to change our ways and seen environmental damage documented over decades such as in the documentaries made by Sir David Attenborough. And yet 2020 was predicted to be one of the three warmest years on record and saw environmental disasters such as the Australian wildfires having a huge impact on people and wildlife. We no longer have the privilege of waiting to take action – climate change has already begun.

If you are anything like me, then reading this is very upsetting. I found it very hard to watch David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet and see the degradation that will occur each decade from now if we carry on the the same way. Quantifying something as big as climate change and being able to compare each moment of loss to birthdays and milestones makes it all feel a lot more real. Seeing the facts again and again can make you feel hopeless, frustrated, sad and angry. But I’m not here to make you feel worse – because together we can change.

Imagine climate change was treated in the same way as the covid-19 pandemic. Would we see adverts telling people to “Look climate scientists in the eye and tell them climate change is not real” or “Look climate refugees in the eye and tell them we are doing everything we can”? Would we take action with a little more urgency, knowing that each day is costing people’s lives and livelihoods? If we are trying to work towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals then why do we not feel that degree of urgency?

This is a complex issue, but if I were to take a guess, I would say that action is slow because it is inconvenient. Because we are not the ones seeing the direct consequences at this point, and so have the luxury of choosing to ignore it. But a time will come when we do not have that luxury anymore.

So what was the point in this post? To make you feel increasing despair and then spend the rest of the day in bed? Quite the opposite – we need change right now! Everyone and every action counts. We can no longer try and find solutions issue by issue, but must take an intersectional and inclusive approach: climate change, the covid-19 pandemic, social change, environmental issues, justice …….. everything is connected. It is the challenge of a generation – but one that we can meet. Maybe we won’t just survive, we’ll thrive. We can bring back our balance with nature through rewilding, we can halt increasing temperatures by ceasing to burn fossil fuels and we can create environmentally, economically and socially sustainable places for humans. We can live that life depicted in infographics of a ‘sustainable future’ – we just have to get there first.

My Call To Arms: change is needed right now. Today. And any change you make will have an impact. We need to pressure our governments and leaders to do more, accept that drastic action is necessary, change as individuals and most of all, do it together – no one left behind. It may be the challenge of a generation, but we can make it the solution of our generation too. We know what we need to do – no ifs or buts. Let’s change🌎