Painting: "The worship of Mammon", Evelyn de Morgan (British, 1850-1919)

Give up a non-essential purchase!

Operation Noah invites you to give up a non-essential purchase each week. It might be your cup of coffee each morning or on a particular morning. Or this week it might be the new television you fancied, or a pair of shoes you have had your eye on.

As you forego your purchase, this can be a time to reflect on the benefits, for you and the Earth, of a simpler lifestyle with less aspiration and consumption and more attention to wellbeing.

Operation Noah believes we need urgently to move way from irresponsible and, ultimately, dangerous lifestyles based on fossil fuel emissions, the boundless consumption of goods, services, and the exploitation of people, resources and environmental sinks.

Sinks: the repositories of waste generated by using up raw materials. Forests, rivers, oceans and the atmosphere are all "sinks" for the waste generated by e.g. the burning of fossil fuels.