Lent in a tent
A campaigner at Christian development charity Tearfund has thrown away his car keys, is sleeping in a tent and will canoe to the shops as part of the charity's Lent carbon fast.
The initiative has been launched to encourage people to take a simple energy saving action, such as refusing to use plastic bags or giving the tumble dryer the day off, each day during the 40 days of Lent.
But Tearfund campaigner Ben Clowney wanted to take the challenge to extremes and become ‘low carbon man’ from 8 to 14, February by cutting his emissions by as much as 95 per cent.
He has moved out of his house into his tent, which is pitched in his parking space outside Tearfund’s head office in Teddington, Middlesex. He will invite his local MP to a meeting by his tent to lobby for changes to the climate change bill and canoe up the river to Richmond to get his weekly shop from a local farmers’ market.
“I wanted to take it to extremes to highlight the urgent need for reduced carbon emissions, and to protect poor communities around the world that are already suffering from the ravages of climate change,” he said. “Obviously, people don’t have to sleep in tents and canoe to the shops to cut their carbon emissions, but the carbon fast is a good place to start.”
Clowney’s progress can be followed on MySpace www.myspace.com/lowcarbonman and information on the carbon fast is at www.tearfund.org.
