The Danish presentation on lifestyle
choices and the environment
Speech manuscript Brno, November, 2010
Intro
(Dias 1)
Sine: We are going to tell you something about how our lifestyle choices affect the environment. We want
to help you to become more environmentally friendly.
Helena: This is not a lecture on how you should be fanatically environmentally friendly but it is some advice
on how to make a difference without necessarily changing your entire lifestyle..
Sine: We want you to listen closely to the advice we give you because you are going to use our
recommendations and advice later. That is why we have handed out the green slips of paper, which you will
need later. We want you to take an active part protecting the environment – so listen closely!
(Dias 2)
Helena: Since we are all girls, we have chosen to look at a typical day in the life of a typical Danish girl......
Sine: So we follow Helene a typical day in her life.
Water
(Dias 3)
Helene We use a lot of water every day. The water we use comes from the ground water but there are not
unlimited amounts of water, so we have to save where we can, and furthermore, we have to be careful not
to contaminate the ground water.
(Dias 4)
Stine T: When Helene gets up in the morning, she goes to the toilet. A normal toilet uses on average 12
litres of water every time you flush.
(Dias 5)
Maria N: After this she brushes her teeth. She lets the water run to rinse the toothbrush after she has
brushed her teeth.
(Dias 6)
Helene: At last I take a shower for 20 minutes and I also leave the water running when I use shampoo.
(Dias 7)
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Maria N: Her overconsumption of water has consequences for the environment. In the short run our
consumption of water can have serious consequences for our health, especially if we take long showers too
often.
Stine T: It is unhealthy for us to shower too much because the natural layer of fat on our skin will gradually
be reduced and this will increase the risk of infections.
Maria N: This might be the reason why some people get pimples and boils – and who wants that!
Helene: In the long run we risk exhausting or using up the ground water and we will have to use cleansed
wastewater over and over again.
Stine T: However, the wastewater treatment plants cannot cleanse the wastewater completely so
water will gradually become more and more contaminated and dirty.
Maria N: So what can I and the rest of us do to help this little girl to have clean water when she grows up?
Helene: Instead of showering for 20 minutes, I can shower for half the time. In this way I will save a lot of
water.
Stine T: She can also install a water-saving toilet, which has a two-flush system and therefore uses less
water.
Maria N: And there is actually also some money to save by saving water. For example by using a two-flush
toilet you can save more than 10.000 liters of water a year.
Helene: On top of that you save money – or rather your parents save money
Stine T: And the effect doubles or triples when your mother, father and siblings do the same!
Maria N: Finally Helene can turn off the water when she does not use it instead of letting the water run.
Cosmetics
(Dias 9)
Liva: Cosmetics include make-up, lotion and hair products, such as shampoo. Everybody uses shampoo
when they shower and most girls use make-up many times a week.
Line: But do we know how these products affect the environment and our bodies? Many products are not
just damaging for the environment but they are also damaging for our health.
(Dias 10)
Liva: When Helene showers she uses lots of shampoo Her excessive use of shampoo has some unwanted
consequences.
Ranya: The chemical substance in cosmetics can disturb or reduce her fertility and in a worst case scenario,
make her sterile because it affects her hormones.
Line: If you are a man and your male hormones are disturbed by these products, your body can start
changing and eventually your body will become less manly and more feminine. Think about that boys!
Ranya: Similarly women whose female hormones are disturbed will be affected.
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Line: Heavy metals are used in many cosmetics, especially shampoo and they will gradually reduce the
activity of the enzymes, which help the decomposition and uptake of sustenance in your body.
Ranya: In worst case you will no longer have any enzymes left in your body and then you will die! Of course
that is very dramatic but in the last resort it is actually a possibility – or should we say risk.
(Dias 11)
Liva: Helene also puts on makeup in the morning. First she puts on foundation and mascara.
Line: When she rinses out the make-up with water, she rinses out a lot of unhealthy chemicals from the
make-up.
Ranya: Some products contain hormone disrupting substances and it will influence animals’ and humans’
ability to have children, and their bodies can change as Line mentioned.
Liva: In the long run it can lead to a very low level of oxygen in lakes and streams, which again will affect
the fish. When we pollute nature, it does not only affect us and our descendants, but the entire food chain.
Line: Waste water from household is cleaned before it is led out into lakes and streams. But the water is
difficult to clean, because the wastewater treatment works cannot remove all the chemical substances.
(Dias 12)
Liva : Helene wants her hairdo to be perfect all day, so she uses hairspray.
Line: When she uses the hairspray, she contributes to ruining the ozone layer, because the spray contains
substances which deplete the ozone layer.
Ranya: When the ozone layer is depleted, holes will appear and unhealthy UV-rays will hit us. This will
result in more cases of skin cancer.
(Dias 13)
Liva: To spare the environment she could have used eco-labelled products. These are made with care for
nature, and they do not contain damaging substances. In Denmark we have the “Swan”-label and in Europe
there is “The Flower”.
Ranya: She could also have used fewer cosmetics or used hairspray from a spray can which is
environmentally friendly. These actually exist but they are not as widespread as we could have hoped for.
Not in Denmark anyhow.
Line: She could avoid rinsing the products into the drains by for instance cleaning her hands with paper
instead of water.
Transportation
(Dias 14)
Stine P: Almost every day we need to be transported from one place to another. For instance, we Danes
travelled to Prague by airplane and from there to Brno by train. We know that some of you Czechs live a bit
far from Brno so you depend on transportation to get to school. Most of us also go to school by bus .
(Dias 15)
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Maria L: Also the food we eat might need transportation to reach our dinner tables.
Helena: Helene likes exotic food: For breakfast Helene drinks cocoa imported from the Ivory Coast in Africa
and eats an orange imported from Cuba in South America!
Stine P: The imported cocoa is transported from the Ivory Coast which lies around 5600 kilometers away
from Denmark. The orange is imported from Cuba which lies farther away, approximately 8000 kilometers
from Denmark
Maria L: This massive transportation by airplane results in a lot of CO2 discharge, which causes global
warming.
(Dias 16)
H elena: Afterwards she drives to school by car. The school is 20 km away
Stine P: When she goes to school by car she drives 20 km back and forth, precisely 40 km a day. If we
multiply 40 km by 200 schooldays a year, it turns out that she drives 8000 km a year - if you British are
trying to convert kilometers into miles – it is the same as driving 5000 miles a year in a car
Helena: This results in a CO2 discharge of almost 400 kilo CO2 a year. And this is probably not the only time
she drives her car.
(Dias 17)
Maria L: At breakfast she could eat and drink local articles instead of imported articles. For instance she
could drink Danish milk such as ARLA and eat Danish whole grain breakfast products or cereals such as
“OTA Solgryn”. (peg)
Helena: The maximum distance if you choose Danish articles, will be 600 km and that is a lot shorter and a
lot less damaging for the environment than choosing imported articles.
Maria L: Instead of taking the car Helene could have used public transport because a bus only discharges
108 kg CO2 a year.
Stine P: And even better she could have used her bike with no CO2 discharge at all! – and that would also
be better for her health
Helena: If she does want to go by car, she can get a green car - an environmentally friendly car, or she could
arrange to drive together with some of her school mates.
(Dias 18)
Waste
Sine: During the day we throw a lot of garbage in the trash can. We throw all sorts of packaging away when
we cook and when we use cosmetics but some of this packaging contains a lot of environmentally
damaging substance and furthermore the production of the packaging can be very polluting.
(Dias 19)
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Helene: And I am no exception. For lunch I go to the local grill and I choose a burger and chips. The food is
wrapped in tinfoil made from aluminium.
Stine T: When aluminium is produced, there is a lot of waste left over. In the production of one kilo of
aluminium you end up with 85 kilos of waste.
Sine: But if the already existing aluminium is recycled, there will only be 3.5 kilos of garbage and at the
same time less electric power is used.
Helene: Another problem is related to obtaining or extracting aluminium. This process results in a lot of
pollution and waste and some of this waste is dumped in streams and as a result fish and plants die.
(Dias 20)
Sine: She also drinks water from a plastic bottle and afterwards she throws away the bottle.
Stine T: Plastic is produced by using oil, which is a fossil fuel. Burning of fossil fuels discharges CO2 and
contributes to more greenhouse effect and thereby global warming.
Sine: Unlike other kinds of trash, plastic will never biodegrade, which means that it will never disappear,
instead it just photo-degrades. It will always be there just in smaller and smaller amounts.
(Dias 21)
Stine T: Listen to this film which will encourage you to use less plastic
Helene: In Denmark, we produce 13, 4 million tons of waste a year, that’s about 2, 8 tons per citizen.
Stine T: Being aware of this, you can see the importance of finding good solutions to recycling garbage or
how to destroy garbage without damaging the climate
(Dias 22)
Sine: So Helene could use less plastic, or glass bottles which can be reused.
Helene: I could recycle different materials
Stine T: Of course we can’t help producing garbage all together but we can use the heat from the
destruction of garbage to warm up houses instead of oil.
Holiday
(Dias 23)
Maria N: Helene loves to have fun and to go on holiday
(Dias 24)
Liva: She and her friend Sine talk about going on a holiday to Sunny Beach by airplane.
Line: By airplane the CO2 discharge will be 135 kg. The distance between Denmark and Sunny Beach, which
lies in Bulgaria, is 4000 km.
(Dias 25)
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Liva: Instead of travelling by airplane she can travel by some more environmentally friendly means of
transportation, such as train. As you can see on this table (peg) trains only discharge 132 kg CO2. But when
it comes to pollution from particulate matter the airplane is clearly the best solution
Line: No matter what: Don’t go by car!
Maria N: If she rides her bicycle every second day instead of the car, she saves the same amount of CO2
discharge as the trip to Sunny Beach produces. So if you want to go on holiday by airplane, you have to ride
your bike to school every other day!
Food
(Dias 26)
Ranya: We all need food, but unfortunately production of food also pollutes
(Dias 27)
Stine P: It’s time for dinner at Helene’s house and Helene and her family have a big steak each.
(dias 28)
Maria L: She defrosts bread in the microwave oven and afterwards she heats it in the big oven which she
has been preheated of course
(dias. 29)
Ranya: She rinses the dishes and afterwards she puts them in the dishwasher which she starts even though
it is not full.
Stine P: Helene´s overconsumption of electric power when she is making dinner affects the environment
because of the way the power is produced. Some electric power is produced by the burning of fossil fuels
such as coal.
Maria L: But she also pollutes because of the kind of meat she eats. The production of beef pollutes more
that the production of chicken.
Ranya: It is a not myth that cows pollute because cows fart when they are grazing in the field. But the main
reason is that producing beef is more polluting than producing chicken.
Stine P: For example; the production of 1 kg beef releases about 9 kilos of CO2. That is almost twice as
much as chicken, which only releases about 6 kilos of CO2.
(Dias 30)
Maria L: There are a lot of things Helene could have done differently when she cooks.
Ranya: For example Helene could have left the bread to defrost on the kitchen table or even better in the
refrigerator instead of using the microwave
Maria L: - or she could have chosen to eat chicken instead of meat or just to eat vegetables.
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Spare time
(Dias 31)
Helena: I am an active girl and I like to party
(Dias 32)
Sine: Helene is my best friend to we decide to go to a night club…. on a Thursday!
Helena: Actually that is pretty normal in Denmark but of course we don’t do that because we have to go to
school the following day. We are model students!
Helene: A night club uses a lot of electricity with leads to a big CO2 discharge and in the long run it leads to
global warming and pollution of the air.
(Dias 33)
Sine: But could she have done anything differently?
Helene: Yes! I could have stayed at home, watching an interesting documentary or reading a nice book…
Helena: Or even better, you could have taken a walk in a park!
Sine: No! Of course, we are just kidding, she should not stay at home! It is important to take care of the
environment but it is also important to have fun!
Helene: But when you choose to do something damaging to the environment, you have to compensate for
example by taking the bus or the bicycle instead of the car. When you take from nature, you have to give
something in return.
Helena: However, the night club industry also has a responsibility to develop into a more environmentally
friendly industry just as well as every other industry has that responsibility.
Sine: And it can be done. In London at Bar Surya they have developed a system where they exploit or make
use of the energy from the dance floor to provide 60 % of the electricity of the building.
Helene: Furthermore, they only sell organic alcohol and if you can prove that you arrived at the bar either
by public transportation or by bicycle, you can get in for free.
Helena: If every night club in the world did as they do at bar Surya, Helene party every weekend with a
clear conscience.
Conclusion
Stine T: So our message is that the choices you make through you lifestyle have a lot of consequences. We
can all make a difference.
Maria N: However, it is not realistic to imagine that we all change our lifestyles completely tomorrow. But
doing a bit is better than nothing at all.
Sine: If you cannot avoid choosing an environmentally damaging solution, you have to compensate by
being environmentally friendly in another situation.
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Stine T: We want you to write your own realistic environmental promise on the green slip of paper we have
handed out to you and put it in this box.
Maria N: And when some of us see each other again in Leeds we will see if we have all kept our promises.
So remember to write a promise you think you can keep. Be realistic! And remember, taking the
environment into consideration, does not necessarily mean that you cannot have fun. It is cool to help the
environment!
(Dias 33)
Sine: And on this reassuring and optimistic note Helene says goodnight!
Stine T: And luckily that is not harmful to the environment.
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