Television
A good reason to switch off
Wendy Cope
Afew weeks ago, at the beginning of Green Book Fortnight, the 'comedian' Ben Elton was interviewed on The Channel Four Daily. I'm not sure that I can recall his exact words but his gist was that we have a battle on our hands to save the planet and everyone has got to realise that it's a battle. As he spoke up for this eminently fashionable cause, he positively glowed with aggressive self-righteousness and, not for the first time, he got right up my nose.
But we mustn't, of course, allow Mr Elton to turn us against the idea of saving the planet, nor should we let the work of Heathcote Williams put us off the innocent whale. However irritating some of the advocates of the Green cause may be, I want to know what I should be doing to help ensure that Earth continues to be habitable. If this can be achieved without anyone haranguing me, or making a bid for Brownie points, so much the better.
The first edition of a new series called The Big E (BBC 1) promised to look at water pollution and to provide some answers to the question, 'Is there anything we can do about it?' For reasons that are not clear to me, the programme was divided into two parts. Part one was broadcast at 6.15 p.m. on Sunday. Part two was scheduled for 11.25 p.m. but went out later because of the Newsnight special on China. The late-night slot seemed particu- larly inappropriate for a programme that talked down to the viewer in a way that reminded me of my days of watching schools programmes with eight-year-olds. Unlike most schools programmes, howev- er, it didn't explain things particularly well. Presenter Chris Baines told us in no uncertain terms that we are bad to use so much water — having a bath, flushing the lavatory and using an automatic washing- machine are all very wasteful — but it still isn't clear to me exactly why we need to use less of the stuff. Going to the car-wash, incidentally, is even more antisocial than the activities mentioned above. As the owner of a vehicle that is permanently filthy because car-washes terrify me, I welcomed this information.
The programme did explain one thing I hadn't understood before. It concerned the dire effects of washing powders and liquids containing phosphates. Phosphates get into the rivers and cause too many algae to grow. What, then, should we buy? Is the absence of phosphates the point of the brands that claim to be ecologically sound? I guess it must be. After devoting an hour or more to watching a programme on the subject, I shouldn't have to guess.
Climate in Crisis (BBC 2, Monday) did a better job. The subject of this programme was global warming, or the greenhouse effect. Presented in a cheerful and unob- jectionable manner by Michael Buerk, it contributed quite a bit to my understand- ing of the phenomenon. One expert pointed out that the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere would be hugely reduced if all of us switched off just one unnecessary light. Another approach — not advocated in the programme — would be for all of us to watch less television. I urge you to try.
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