SPECIAL: Aberdeen Editor

Ah Scotland, Bonnie Scotia. Spent a great year at Stirling University. Stirling is of course the home of William 'Braveheart' Wallace immortalised in film by Mel 'YA CANNAE TAKE OUR FREEEEDOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!' Gibson. Of course I wonder what Mr Wallace would have made of the struggle to green the planet?

Never made it to Aberdeen. Luckily for me I am delighted to announce that we now have an Aberdeen editor to educate us as to the green goings on up there in Scotland's third city, on the North East coast of Scotland.

Paula tells me that living in a town built on oil and the energy industry can make it quite hard to make a difference but that she tries. Should be interesting to see how she copes and adapts. Before she kicks off, here are the usual introductory questions:

CityHippy: Who are you, where do you come from and live?

Paula: My name is Paula and I live in the centre of Aberdeen, in Scotland.

CityHippy: What inspires you to be green?

Paula: I believe that any positive changes I can make to the way I live my life - whether they be the food I buy, the energy I use or the amount I recycle - can only be good for environment. Each of us has the capability to make a change and no matter how small this change may be it will make a difference.

CityHippy: What is the one thing you do that you are proud of doing?

Paula: I bought myself a Christmas present last year. A goat. This goat was sent on my behalf to Africa where it is given to a family who uses the milk to feed their family and passes the offspring on to another family. I also bought chickens for a friend. I think it is great idea.

CityHippy: What is the one thing you wish you could do?

Paula: I hate big gas guzzling 4x4s used for the school run and trips to the supermarket and wish I could persuade the people that use them to drive something more economical.

CityHippy: What is the one thing you wish everyone in the world did differently?

Paula: I wish people were more tolerant. We are all different and if we could just accept this the world would be a more peaceful place. I may be naive to think this but I live in hope.

CityHippy: What is your dream job?

Paula: I want to do something that makes a difference. I don’t know what yet.

CityHippy: What is your favourite way to relax?

Paula: Recently I have found myself baking cakes. There is something therapeutic about baking a cake and the chance to lick the bowl is great fun. The cakes taste even better when they are organic!

CityHippy: Why is the world a mess? What can we do about it?

Paula: People are too caught up in the consumer world. We all use too much energy, we buy too many of the latest gadgets and want our goods as cheap as possible. This isn'’t sustainable. Somewhere down the line someone has to pay. We need to take a step back and think about what we are doing. Even if we all made one small change the cumulative effect would be staggering.

CityHippy: Paula, you sound like a City Hippy kind of gal and I look forward to your contributions and finding out more about Green Aberdeen.

...Ladies & Gentleman...Paula!!!

Namaste

Al

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