CLIMATE CHANGE CAMPAIGNER
THE environment has been on the lips of pretty much everyone I have visited over the festive season… from feeling bad about using plastic to worrying about over-consumption and yet, so few people seem to actually be doing anything in earnest to turn the tide.
Not so with 22-year-old Hamish Evans, who at just 16 years old moved on to his 25ft narrowboat Harry with a commitment to turning it into a ‘zero carbon home’.
Moored permanently in Bathampton, Hamish’s electricity comes from solar panels and he’s even switched to a compost toilet, with the rich matter being used to nourish fruit trees. “Heat comes from the wood-burning stove, which is a challenge to make carbon neutral, but I have planted thousands of trees in the last three years so I hope that over time the carbon is offset and the wood biomass renewed.”
Cooking is also a difficult one, but Hamish tells me how he uses a rocket stove and Kelly Kettle and heats water on the fire. “I am still reliant on 13kg Calor gas bottles, but my hope is that biogas bottles will be on the market in coming years.” (Biogas is the process of extracting methane from our food waste and animal manure before bottling it for use).
While not everyone would choose this kind of simplicity, choosing what we eat, how we get about and how much electricity we consume, are all within our control.
Hamish’s choices certainly run through every area of his life. When not studying at Bath University he works at local bakery, The Oven (run by boaters!), helps on an organic farm and is also heavily involved with a local land co-operative, the Dry Arch Growers. “The land co-operative is just 100m from my mooring. I had known about it for a while and went along to volunteer before deciding to become a member. It’s a real luxury to have the six-acre orchard and community allotment on my doorstep.”
Psychological challenge
In the summer of 2019 Hamish challenged himself to Two Months Eating from the Land and this year he’s going for three. “To be honest it’s not a big deal, it’s perfectly possible to get all our calories in a balanced diet from the land, it's more the psychological challenge rather than physically meeting needs,” Hamish tells me.
“It’s the staying up late to boil veg for lunchtime the next day, shelling hazelnuts for hours, waking up before dawn to harvest berries for breakfast... but actually this felt like a more wholesome way to be. I have never felt so healthy, close to nature and energetic.”
As a vegan myself I was intrigued to see if Hamish felt the need to supplement his diet and was heartened when he mirrored my own belief, that “we have such a protein focus in our culture, but the majority of Europeans eat more protein than our bodies can healthily digest.”
On his local, vegan summer diet Hamish worked full time, cycled everywhere, played sport and the only exceptions he made were some bread from the bakery where he works and some good local oil and sea salt to jazz up the endless potatoes, but as he acknowledges himself: “I envisage the eat from the land project becoming easier and more varied every year, as I become more skilled at growing, foraging and cooking.”
Hamish’s passion for the environment led to him getting involved with Extinction Rebellion (XR) a year ago. “Since then I have helped establish the Bath group and more recently, Bath XR Youth as I see this as our best hope of avoiding a climate and ecological crisis on a global scale.”
Hamish tells me that a range of meetings, events, actions and socials happen every week to suit varying levels of involvement and there is even a national XR Boaters group!
Boat living is not necessarily ecologically sound given the opportunities for generators, diesel and coal, but the choice to keep things basic and carve out a more environmentally friendly life on the cut is ours to make. “I am often reminded to cherish this simple life and the everyday beauty of the canal is what I love most: waking up on the water to a frosty-red sunrise with birdsong and the swans drifting by. It’s easy to idealise, but equally easy to take for granted.” Speaking with Hamish reminds me that not everyone is taking this earth for granted and that the future is in good hands; let’s just not forget that we all have hands.