WHEN a man you've never met before suddenly gives you a bunch of flowers, that's impulse. It's the sort of thing that happens to me all the time. I'll be minding my own business when a shy, bespectacled type appears holding a colourful bouquet. I thank him before going on to enquire whether these blooms are locally and organically grown. If they happen to have come from a hothouse on the other side of the world, what else can I do but return them to my crestfallen suitor?
But this isn't a column about flowers. It's a warning about acting on impulse. Last night, not only did I watch Fifth Gear, a TV programme about vehicles, I also entered a competition to win one.
To put this in perspective, I don't own a car. Since a lorry drove into the back of mine two years ago, I have developed a bona fide driving phobia. Some people would look on this as a burden, but if you're trying to be green it's a godsend. While all around me are purchasing ever-larger 4x4s, watching their waistlines expand to the extent that they might soon be selected to star in a Dove commercial, I get to walk, cycle and look virtuous while sitting on the bus. In every possible way, I should be the nemesis of the motor industry. But last night all that changed.
Maybe it's because it was a Mini Cooper that was up for grabs. Along with the Beetle and the Citroen C5, it's the car most likely to come to life in a Disney movie - see Lindsay Lohan in Herbie: Fully Loaded for details. Those little motors have personality. And then there's the fact that I will soon be moving deeper into the wilderness (in the Scottish Borders). Where I live now, the solitary bus service goes north and south, but should you need to travel east or west you can either shell out for a taxi or disguise yourself as a senior citizen and call the dial-a-bus service. Before I lose the thread completely, my real question is whether it's possible to drive a car and keep your green conscience clean.
A good start would be to use the car only for longer, necessary journeys. A quarter of all trips made in the UK are 3km or less - think how fit we'd be if we walked or cycled instead.
Choosing to run a fuel-efficient car goes without saying - by law, cars in the showroom must now display a label showing its fuel-efficiency rating - from A to G (G for gas-guzzler).
The Toyota Prius tops the list of fuel-efficient petrol cars, according to the Vehicle Certification Agency, and the Mini Cooper D makes it into the top ten diesel vehicles. The truly dedicated will be off bartering for used chip fat to produce their own biodiesel - just don't forget to declare it to HM Revenue and Customs (you can find out where to buy it at
www.biodieselfillingstations.co.uk).
You could opt for carbon offsetting (or guilt offsetting, as I like to call it) to make up for all that driving, or sign up to BP's www.targetneutral.com scheme, which, for about £20 a year will "support projects which reduce CO2 emissions".
Until I receive the call to tell me that the Mini is mine, I remain entirely dedicated to the joys of public transport. You can read on the bus, and you can use your mobile phone without getting fined. You even get free entertainment; the other night I joined my fellow passengers in the slow clap for an intoxicated man who refused to get off at his allotted stop. The cheer that went up when he finally stumbled out of the door fair warmed the cockles. Now you don't get that in a car.
Website and book of the week
www.vcacarfueldata.org.ukDAZZLE your friends at the next organic dinner party you attend with your encyclopaedic knowledge of vehicle fuel-efficiency. This comprehensive site tells you all you need to know.
The Low Carbon Diet, by Polly Ghazi and Rachel Lewis (£12.99, Short Books) FAST becoming the book I can't leave home without, this treasure-trove of facts and figures about environmental issues is packed with easy tips on how to painlessly make your lifestyle greener.
