So I was watching the CBC National news last night and towards the end there was a segment about reducing our C02 footprint. This week has been a complete news flurry re: global warming and how it really is all our fault (I thought we already knew that, but anyway). It started off interesting enough but then in true CBC fashion it moved to scare tactics and consulted with Fraser Institute-like organisations to obtain all of their information.I am all for wind and solar power, turning down the heat, walking as much as possible, etc. I will not however do something like the 100 km diet where everything you eat must be locally grown within 100 km from your home because trucking and flying in food increases CO2 emissions; that’s just crazy talk.
There was a discussion of ‘offsetting’ your environmental missteps by calculating your C02 no no’s into something good for the environment. So, say I have to fly to Toronto for a business meeting. Well that produces a certain amount of C02 emissions and I can then calculate it and see that I should put about 80$ into something environmentally beneficial or sustainable such as wind or solar power, etc. Oh, but you can’t put it towards trees or reforestation because they say these are not sustainable due to logging (not a joke, one of the hippies actually said that). Same goes for driving your car, using electricity, etc. Sounds nice in theory but what do they want me to do? Walk to Toronto?? I mean, I could take the Greyhound but that is a diesel-guzzling bus and it idles all the time when picking and dropping off people (leaving a vehicle idling was a big no no on the World Wildlife Foundation top 10 list of things we are doing wrong).
I am all for the environment and I too am scared of global warming but what are we supposed to do? Quit our jobs because we cannot walk from Vancouver to Richmond (sorry but I cannot risk my C02 emissions footprint, I have to quit this job). Even though SiSi says that I am so going to turn into a Cat Woman in my dotage...eating frosting out of a can with thousands of cats and screaming at the tv, I cannot help but wonder just what in the hell are we supposed to do? I’m scared of global warming too.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/global-warming020507.htm
8 comments:
Try to stop instantly when you're running at full speed. Ya can't. Same deal with your 'C02 footprint'.
What really annoys me is that bad weather (hurricanes, snow storms, etc.) is what it takes for the average person to start fearing the apocalypse.. just highlighting how closely we are related to our cave-dwelling ancestors.
I believe in climate change because it makes sense. Not because I'm scared of some inclement weather.
The report was all hype with little fact. It was a bunch of hippocrite hippies preaching that the rest of us are bad, evil, etc.
This footprint stuff is unrealistic and no one, save for a few hippies, is going to abandon cars, flying to business meetings and eating kale b/c that is all there is within 100km today :P
Some places will be underwater, it'll be warm, more natural disasters perhaps but it is nature afterall and we can't control it. I just hate scare tactics.
As usual, I point to Rex Murphy, he always sums thing up nicely:
http://www.cbc.ca/national/rex/rex_070201.html
Bun-NAY!
I take some solace in the fact that as average consumers some of us actively try to conserve energy (switching to fluorescent light bulbs and washing clothes in cold water using sulfite-free detergent), pay attention to what we throw away and recycle as much as we can, not to mention discussing topics like this regularly and trying our best not to make a botch-up of our planet. We try. What annoys me are the people and corporations that don't. Ron made a good point when we chatted about this last night and he said that the government has to increase the stability of infrastructure before it can possibly ask it's people to follow suit. How many times have we seen ads to take public transit instead of driving only to find the buses unreliable and packed full when it makes it to your stop? Does it make you want to continue to take the bus? Not if there is the option of driving and saving time and hassle. The infrastructure needs to be repaired. And on the whole issue of buses...when Vancouver had the transit strike several years ago and there weren't any buses running, the air was clearer and there weren't anywhere close to the severity of traffic jams that we see with buses running. Odd that.
People simply have to take more care of how they do things and I, for one, am glad that the whole global warming/environment issue has come to the forefront of our collective consciousness. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a knee-jerk reaction that only has a brief time in the limelight and that people actually do something about it.
My $0.02.
...oh and you are SO going to turn into a crazy cat lady eating frosting out of a can with thousands of cats and screaming at the tv...and you'll be in great company 'cuz I'll be the same way.
BUN-NAY!!!
...oh and this is worth a read. It was posted on a gardening newsgroup that I read frequently:
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/global-warming020507.htm
We should get together when we are old and eat frosting and scream at the same tv show and they should make THAT into a tv show. I think people would watch :P We'd be like a bitchier, more senile version of The View!
"eating frosting out of a can with thousands of cats and screaming at the tv..."
we already do that, except that it's whipped cream out of gramma's kitchen, tigger, and us on the phone while watching tv in separet cities.
i miss watching that wilderness guy with you.
That 'Alone in the Wilderness' dude is just plain awesome. Not sure how he makes all that stuff but I have seen the program like 13 times now :P
You'll be back in about 20 weeks, we can find something on tv for sure then.
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