8,001.9 miles for G
The odometer on my car says I have driven 8,001.9 miles since I left Brooklyn for this trip in July of 2007.
In the past, Laura and a few friends have referred to me as an environmentalist. Although I do have a true love for the environment and our impact on it, I am nowhere near an environmentalist. I smoke on occasion, eat meat almost everyday, and I have been driving around the country in a carbon-spewing stink-box-on-wheels filled with plastic and leather for the last four months. The car was loaned to me for free for the project, I couldn't really complain about it. It's not like people with their bio-diesel or hybrid cars were knocking down my door. I took what I could get, and now I must pay for it.
Offsetting your carbon foot-print seems totally backwards to me. It advocates that you can pollute, get off with a slap on the wrist and not have to feel bad about it. But that doesn't fix the problem or promote any kinda of change. I say be conscious of the decisions you make and understand the effects your choices have on your environment. Now that I own a car and rely on it, I realize it's not always easy. I still do the best I can though. I don't buy bottled water, I try my damnedest not to eat fast-food, I only buy locally (If I buy anything at all), and I've even been somewhat good about last year's New Years resolution and have tried not to eat pork. I've been eating Miss Piggy on occasion, but far less then it used to.
So according to climatecrises.net, If I add in my cars make and model, I have produced just under four tons of carbon since leaving Brklyn. According to them, I should give $50 to support eco-friendly causes. I've chosen to buy $50 worth of trees (that's 50 trees) and plant them in honor of my Grandfather, Bob, or as I always referred to him, G, or G'Pa.
(center) G'ma and G'pa, Prom, 1948
G was always amazingly supportive of anything I wanted to do. He was like my best friend, and was always there if I needed something. I loved him more then anything, and it still hurts to see photos of him in the house and to know I am currently sitting twenty feet away from where he passed. Because of finances and living in NY, I had not seen my Grandpa for a while. I was three days away from visiting him here in Indiana, when he suddenly died in 2004. This was going to be the first time we could have shared a beer together, something we were both really looking forward to. He even went out and bought us a case of Bud for the occasion.
The night of his passing I walked into a little pub across from where I lived on 8th ave, and bought two beers and laid out an image of him on the bar. Although I thought about leaving one untouched, he would have thought it to be wasteful, so I downed them both, and got on a plane the next day for his funeral. I never saw my grandfather without a smile on his face, he was truly an inspiration and I am very happy to say that he would have loved seeing me on this journey, and I know he would have been my greatest supporter. These miles, even thought they are filled with dirty carbon, are most definitely for him.
Labels: between boonville III
posted by Timothy Briner at
11:42 AM
5 Comments:
Tim- sorry to hear about your Grandpa's passing. As for carbon-footprint offest, you are missing the point. The idea isn't that you should pollute and just pay for it as a kind of penance. It's that we do pollute, as participants in modern society- it's inescapable. So we should do what we can to reduce this, yes, but we should also do things to offset it- like planting trees, supporting local businesses, and eating locally produced foods- all the things you try to do, and that we should all try to do. If you had recieved a donated hybrid car, or vegetable oil diesel, you'd still be polluting with your car- just a bit less. But your obligation to do things to reduce your carbon footprint is the same- it is for all of us. Even people who don't drive, who live off the grid and only eat stuff off their own land are contributing to the environmental crisis by being part of the human community and thus complicit in the damage we are all doing. So every bit of good helps- every tree growing consumes carbon and puts out oxygen, regardless of why it was planted. Even if it seems backwards, it's still a good idea.
No doubt...but I think that people (major corporations) can look at it as a way out. It could costs tons of money upfront to change the way people live or run a company, and only a little bit of change to offset that, so instead of doing the right thing and changing for the good of the environment (and any number of other things), they are polluting and eventually they are putting more money into that then they are to actually not pollute, which is backwards.
Maybe I do miss the point, but I still think that change must come first. Otherwise we will just keep polluting and keep paying for it, and never truly move forward. Blah.
Daaaaammmmn Tim, you look just like your Grandpa!
You were in Cheezetown and didn't contact me? No pizza and beer for you! ;)
Brent's right, you do look just like your Grandpa.
The change that must come first has to be small steps, taken over and over again. People- especially in a corporate environment- when presented with big changes are more likely to refuse them. But little steps look easier, less painful. What's better? Call for big steps that people won't take, or small ones they will? Evolution, not revolution. Look at our history. Momentum is a powerful thing. For most of the roughly 200 years since the Industrial Revolution we didn't know what we were doing to the environment. Now that we are finally waking up the damage (and we're still only waking up to it- evidence the many people who don't believe there's a problem) it's become so bad that we are really in trouble. But look at the way we operate: we sacrifice all for the short term gain. We refuse to see the big picture, and in corporate terms, all that matters is next quarter's profits. This is what we're up against. So we have to find a strategy that can affect the framework of our society (corporations)- and it will be many small steps, to eventually shift the center toward environmental stweardship. The sweeping changes we'd like to see will- and need to enact!- be refused unless they come gradually. So the small steps, taken by as many as can be persuaded to take them are our best hope- and they lay the framework for the will to take the bigger ones which must be coming.
Such a touching visual of you drinking to your grandpa at the bar. Really sweet...
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