down to earth
Published February 24, 2007 | 
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space
Cause there’s bugger-all down here on Earth
- eric idle
I mention this only as an introduction to something I’ve been thinking about. Carbon. Suddenly it’s all the rage to be “carbon neutral”. A good thing. Same as me not eating fish, living a life with a tiny carbon foot print can’t be a bad thing. The downside of course is the spiral of carbon use just to keep us western thinkers living a western lifestyle while espousing carbon neutralness. We must all accept some responsibility to the carbon footprint of the trucks that bring us products, the workers driving to work each day to make them, The teller who has to come in to take our deposit at the bank and all the other secondary carbon burners that supply our way of life beyond how often you mow your lawn. I was musing the other day about what U2′s Bono’s carbon footprint must be?? Validate that Bono! 
Then I tried the Google Earth Experiment. . .
Ok, so years ago when I got my house there were no trees in the lawn. Well, a scraggly old pine and a couple sugar maples. But mostly it was an open yard in the middle of open fields. I planted a ton of trees. I was aware way back then that I was trying to offset some of my “carbon” use. I made ecology buttons in first grade remember. Of course my 20 plus trees seems like a joke when I look beyond my yard to the forests in the distance. Yet my trees add up and do a good bit to supply the air I breath and soak up some of the carbon I emit, but as Silbs says, I digress.
So to better understand you’re “carbon neutral” stance and it’s effect on the world open up Google Earth and zoom in on my house. Go ahead. (or pick yours if you can’t find mine). So there we are staring at my house from the sky. See all my tiny trees? Let’s start zooming out shall we? See the 8 to 10 houses near me? Most of these folks aren’t all that “carbon conscious”. One guy has a collection of ATVs, Giant 4x4s and more. In fact lots of the neighbors have big 4x4s, ATVs, Snowmobiles, Wave Runners, lawn tractors, old bass boats with oily 1968 Johnson outboards, and all that other stuff Americans love. Zoom out a bit more. Yeah, my house is surrounded by what could really be called an industrial farm. Look at those grain towers, giant dryers, massive tractors & semis to haul it all. Zoom out. Ah, the city of Baraboo. 10,000 plus people. Homes being heated by fossil fuels, thousands of cars warming in the driveways, thousands of ATVs, snowmobiles, wave runners, lawn tractors, restaurants thawing sea food for omelets. . . . Add factories by the dozen, busy highways, hundreds of stores warming up for the day. Steam, and smoke everywhere rising into the sky. Zoom out. Madison comes into view. Tens of thousands of people. Zoom Out. Chicago. Keep going. Detroit, Cincinnati, New York, LA. London, Beijing. . . on and on. Well you get the point. My efforts have now become a joke. Heck, even if I never existed it wouldn’t even register a blip on the “global carbon meter”.
So, does that mean it’s worthless to care? Well no. We have to live with ourselves don’t we? I don’t eat fish remember. But the thing is, I’ve been seeing a trend of little “Carbon Stalins” out there wanting to jab at others for taking a trip or flying in a plane or whatever. Get real. Certainly each one of us bears responsibility to some extent. But remember everything you or I do as an individual is less than a trillionth of a drop in the preverbal bucket. Real change has to happen on a global scale. Something I fear is so far beyond us as individuals it may never be addressed in any truly useful manner. Yet, certainly keep doing what you’re doing. Help others to understand the problems we face. But when you start feeling a bit superior hop on Google earth and put it all in perspective. Look at your house, zoom out. Stay there a minute. Then. . . for pity’s sake come back down to earth. Be nice to one another.
Learn More
Carbon Offset – Wikipedia
Carbon Offset Harms Environment – BBC
Quick Guide To Carbon Offsetting – BBC
Care Needed With Carbon Offsets – BBC
CarbonFootprint.com
Consumer Guide To Carbon Offset (PDF)
Carbon Offset Just Hot Air? – Gaurdian
National Carbon Offset Coalition
Carbon Postitive
Happy Saturday!
Whenever life gets you down Mrs. Brown
And things seem hard or tough
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft
And you feel that you’ve had quite enough…
Just, remember that you standing on a planet that’s evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour
It’s orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it’s reckoned
A sun that is the source of all our power
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm at forty thousand miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way
Our galaxy itself, contains a hundred billion stars
It’s a hundred thousand light years side-to-side
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick
But out by us it just three thousand light years wide
We’re thirty thousand light years from galactic central point
We go round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions in this amazing and
expanding universe
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
As fast as it can go, the speed of light you know
Twelve million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is
So remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space
Cause there’s bugger-all down here on Earth
- eric idle
Related Posts:
8 Responses to down to earth
This will cheer you up: Honey bees have been disappearing by the millions…world wide. No one know why. some have suggested insecticides and even Osama Ben L. who apparently sells honey to support his minions. Any way,without the bees, no polination, no plants and no food crops. Have a nice day.
The meaning of life. Wasn’t there that “fishy fishy fish” bit in there too?
I was sitting in a Geology class about 10 years ago. The theme of the class was “earth resources.” It was an elective for me but since I was studying ceramics and wanted to learn more about the natural resource I was using to make my pots with, it seemed like a good fit.
The prof spent a great deal of time discussing global warming, the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle as well. This was ten years ago and the evidence (yes, evidence) that was being presented in our class was another 10 years previous to that. I was convinced and somewhat upset then. I still am today.
The planet is still warming just like it was in 1997. But something much more sinister has arrived on the horizon and descended into our lives since then. That would be the political . . . (what is that stuff you step in from time to time?). Somehow, it’s been suggested that my patriotism is questionable if I “believe” in global warming theory.
I was coming home from Huntsville Alabama last December on a night flight. The sky was cloudless and the moon was just on the tip of the starboard wing as we flew northward. The moonlight illuminated the continuous blanket of smog which to my astonishment persisted for the entire cross country trip. I looked down to the ground and saw a plethora of sodium vapor lights dotting the landscape. There was no place void of them except for the patches of lakes and rivers. I started thinking of the massive energy network to make this possible. I also wondered why did all of these lights have to be on at 11 PM out in the middle of nowhere? Then I saw the signature of a power plant’s plume of smoke streaking nonchalantly over the landscape. It didn’t look like much from 27,000 feet and I knew it was mostly water vapor I was seeing. But that thing never stops. It goes 24/7 and it was only one of thousands. The greenhouse gas is in there. It left me feeling powerless.
It’s a behemoth. What can I do to help? I want it to change but I am afraid to give up what is familiar and comfortable. I want to believe those politicians who offer comfort in the assurances all is well. I want to be angry at those who do not believe like I believe. It’s okay to have feelings about this. Change creates the most powerful emotions we experience.
Turn off the lights when your done using them. Let’s just start with that. It all starts right here at home. Do your bit to conserve, recycle, clean up and just trust that what seems to be an insignificant contribution to a massive dilemma – actually does make a difference.
A kayak is certainly a smaller carbon footprint than a 5000 HP Bass Avenger. Quieter too.
Strange dilemma we’re in isn’t it.
I could sell my house and run off into the forest,build a nest out of sticks and leaves and live on roots and berries the rest of my life(which I suspect wouldn’t be very long)and the planet would still be going to hell in a handbag.The rest of the world would be busy building factories,blowing up chlorine tankers and tearing up the forest in ATV’s,oblivious to my new lifestyle.All you can do is live the way you believe is right,the best you can.I could quit my job which involves piloting a well maintained 40 foot diesel behemoth
but there would be someone in the same drivers seat on the next shift.I give up,so next July I’m going to load two sea kayaks on top of my efficient 4 cylinder car,drive for ten hours and paddle
the Lake Superior Pukaskwa coastline for two weeks before Lafarge Aggregates convinces the Canadian goverment that it would be good for the economy if they turned all those beautiful mountains into gravel and cement for more roads and malls.
Great post Derrick and as depressing as it is I’m still going to have a great day with my friends and family.
Cheers
Bert
No one need ever think they can’t do something just because yhey might think they’re a small grain of sand on the beach! I’m glad you planted your trees and that you’ve written about this topic. Just like the anti-smoking campaign, the momentum is growing and it will save us, I’m certain. Keep the faith!
Derrick,
I’ve been writing a post on this very topic (not nearly as eloquently) for the P&H blog…just haven’t posted it yet (can’t get the damned photos to upload!). Starting this year, my kayak school (41° North Kayak Adventures) is buying offsets for every class, trip, and tour now, so we can be carbon-neutral. Small steps, my freind!
Great post. You know, Derek your small efforts may not make a huge difference but writing articles like that do. The more people who find the kayak world on-line eventually find your blog and eventually will read this. You do make a difference.
Good post — and typically fatalistic. How depressing. Just yesterday during one of his political rants one of my collegues told me that there is nothing we can do as individuals to stop global warming. “You think driving a hybrid car is going to stop global warming?” he said. I was speechless, not because I thought he was wrong, but because he obviously just didn’t care. I started to wonder if I belong to a shrinking minority that believes that it is still important to live according to one’s values.
By the way, given all the resources and energy spent on feeding, transporting and processing livestock, becoming a vegetarian is probably the single most important behavioral change you can do to shrink your carbon footprint — more than driving a hybrid car.
I have moved a lot in my life. I have tried to plant a tree or two wherever I go. When people ask, ”what do you want as a gift” I usually say a tree. Its’s a small contibution, but at least it IS a contribution. kqp