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He’s never shopped in an out-of-town supermarket, tasted processed food, nor bought a luxury item, so gross overpackaging doesn’t concern him, nor the challenge of overflowing landfill sites and recycling bins. He re-uses everything. He just struggles to grow enough so his kids don’t keep going to bed hungry. He’s never heard that cows emit methane, thus allegedly contributing to global warming, but he’d love to own one or even just have a bit of milk to stop his youngest daughter crying. It’s unlikely his children will have the opportunity to learn more about what makes this world tick, as the older ones are coming to the end of their free primary education, and going to the Secondary School costs money he doesn’t have. So they’ll continue to play football with ripped plastic bags bound together with “string”, (shredded rubber tyres), carry water and hoe their barren ground. There’s not much chance of a job for any of them.
So Robert goes on - working hard to provide for his family, walking a tightrope on the edge of poverty, with his climate becoming increasingly extreme - torrential flooding washing away his precious seeds, and scorching heat, drought, and water shortage.
He wishes he could choose to turn his 40” plasma- screened TV off from standby - he did see a television once, years ago, showing “The A-Team”, and would love to see one again.
........lifestyle in the rural areas
“A CARBON FOOTPRINT”
He doesn’t seem perturbed by carbon footprints, he’s just concerned that his children, - and the four orphans in his care, - will eat something today.
Robert’s carbon footprint would hardly dent his barren soil.
Admittedly his wife cooks and heats water over an open wood fire, but he has no electricity, so debates around renewable energy resources pass him by. He doesn’t have pumped water into his “bathroom” so he can’t turn off the tap while he cleans his teeth. He hasn’t got a tap, nor a flush toilet, power shower, washing machine, fridge, iron or dishwasher. His ambition is to own a bicycle so a choice between bio-fuels is irrelevant, and he’s only ever seen a plane from 30,000ft below.
All his family’s clothes are from recycled stock by necessity, and he has no shoes, only a pair of much-worn flip-flops, one green and one red, in slightly different sizes.