Travel and alternative means of travel seems to be a hot topic…It was heartening to hear how many of you are looking at alternatives to your car and looking at electric models, your mode of travel when you need to use other transport i.e for your holidays…

Electric Cars and changing to one seems to be gaining momentum… I have been greatly heartened by the many readers who have one and love it…

Pete Springer is a big fan and  added to his review from last week and said:

Another thing I neglected to say about a hybrid or electric car is how unbelievably quiet they are. When I took mine for the test drive a few years back, I turned the key and then looked over at the salesman assuming something was wrong. I asked, “What do I do now?” His reply, “Drive.” Pretty funny!

John Reiber said: Carol, as your post shows, it’s another week of “two steps forward, one step back”…keep sharing these important stories, both good and bad, to keep awareness high and momentum going forward…oh, my wife bought an electric car last year and it’s like floating on air…with my hybrid, we now use about 10 gallons of gas a month.

Alethea said: We have two plugins. I drive a Chevy Volt and my husband a Prius Prime. We love our plugins. They are peppy, quiet, and no fumes unless we’re on a longer drive. The added bonus is they are powered by our solar panels. 🙂 Also, both very affordable cars.

Steve said: I have a hybrid Toyota, Carol – A RAV4. I like the car a lot and it’s quite powerful. The miles per gallon doesn’t live up to the claims, but at least it is supporting a key future technology. We’ve got to embrace new technologies and get to that critical mass where big things happen!

It’s 18 months old, so there is a new model. The standard Toyota platform, as used in the Prius, as well, is a ‘self-recharging’ mechanism that doesn’t plug in, but has computer-controlled ‘scavaging’ whereby it used every element of the car’s motion to re-charge the huge internal batteries. You can set it to use only electric, but only low speeds; and it will switch to petrol when it needs too. Overall, its an excellent car

These reviews are twofold for me…They give me hope that car drivers are embracing change PLUS they are genuine reviews by the people who use them daily…They are not salesperson speak or manufacturers but genuine people who use cars…

Thank you guys for your input it is valuable and I love how this post is interactive…You all rock!

Also on the subject of travel...young Greta Thunberg who has taken a year out of school to champion her dream of seeing changes being implemented for the good of the environment…Is on her travels…

Although her mode of travel is not something we can all adopt she is certainly doing all she can to show how serious she is…

Opting to cross the Atlantic in a zero-carbon yacht. The 16-year-old Swedish activist was travelling on a sailboat to attend a UN summit on zero-emissions after refusing to fly there because of the carbon emissions caused by planes.

Hats of to this young lady she is certainly inspiring many people to make a difference…It was also lovely to hear that her father was with her on this journey…

Food Waste…Something which is dear to my heart as I don’t believe that in this day and age anyone should be worrying about how to feed their children or be going to bed hungry…

Most of us buy too much food it sits in the fridge and goes bad…We are not savvy shoppers …A bargain isn’t a bargain if we buy more than we can consume ..we need to be looking at if we buy more than we need can we pickle, can, make jams, chutneys, freeze it not just use what we need and throw the rest because it doesn’t last that long…

If we are cooking and scaping scraps of plates into the waste bin..serve or cook less…offer seconds….leftovers? freeze portions or use the next day …learn how to use leftovers…I will be posting some recipes using leftovers in my Friday’s post as a part of my new series…We need to become smarter…Do you have a neighbour who is on their own would they appreciate a dish?

Thinking caps on….Time to do our bit to ensure everyone has food in their tummies if we look after our part of the world it could become a reality..Already there are schemes springing around the world be part of it…

Don’t be the cause of someone going to bed or going to school hungry…

Italy is introducing a series of incentives to end food waste. Instead of throwing away leftover food, Italy wants businesses that sell food to donate unsold to charities rather than throw it away.

The environmental, economic and moral benefits are so clear that the bill received broad support across all political parties and is speeding through the approval process. The next step will be getting businesses to comply, providing some sort of nudge to change the current model of careless waste.

Other countries such as France are nudging businesses in the form of a steep fine. Italy is trying another way…

What else is being done?? In the UK and the US…Schools, businesses, communities are all working to feed children…Many of these are children of parents who work but because of low wages,  high rents and services parents who often go without themselves to feed their children…are struggling to feed their children. Children are starving or not receiving adequate nutrition around the world…It must stop!

Schools are a natural fit for food pantries – they provide an easy-to-access location that parents and students feel comfortable in and visit regularly. While some parents might not be able to visit traditional food pantries because of distribution times or location, in most cases school pantries distribute food at the end of the day when parents are already at the school to pick up their children.

Locating food pantries in schools means the program is able to connect kids and their families with the healthy food they need during the weekend. Just how much of an impact does the program make? Every year, school pantries serve 21 million meals to nearly 110,000 children.

Want to help feed kids during the school year? Ask a school near you if they have a pantry…Maybe you can help or donate food?

Recycling: Sweden has a good and high rate of recycling. They do it with a simple colour coding system. Could this be the way forward for the UK and other countries to improve recycling rates? And its a win-win situation. More people recycle, its easier to sort, less cross-contamination, recycle of the bags used, biofuels produced, and much more besides. The only downside is that individual households might have to use a little bit more of there kitchen space to collect recyclables. For the full report, see here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/busines…