My Carbon Footprint

I've been thinking a bit lately about how much my carbon footprint has increased in just this past year. Before then, my carbon footprint after having moved to san Diego could have been something to be envied:  I took the bus pretty much everywhere local, I walked a lot, and didn't drive much to go anywhere.  I lived a somewhat satisfying, if locally-focused, life.

During this past year, however, I've been doing my share of contributing to global climate change, and it's not something that I am particularly proud of.  I've made two international round trips (a total of six flights, including an international trip outside the U.S.) since last summer, and have flown to San Francisco a couple of times, as well.  The flights were all holiday-related.  Last summer, Peter and I took two flights each way to Roatan (from San Diego to Dallas and then onward to Roatan) where we spent a week scuba diving and exploring each other.

I accompanied Peter in the late winter to Barcelona, where he attended a conference. After the conference, we flew from Barcelona to London, then from London to Newcastle upon Tyne. We hired a car from Newcastle which we took up the coast to Alnwick.  We then headed to the Lake District, staying in Keswick.  Finally, we headed eastward through a few small towns, returning to Joan McGuinness's home.  Loved the roundabouts and how quickly and efficiently they enabled traffic to move.  Makes me wonder why we don't utilize them more here, but then I think about the driving habits of Americans in general, and realize that we live, unfortunately, in a society that needs rules that take away any personal judgment.  Being outside the United States makes me wonder why this country is so so so far behind others in adopting modern technologies into life.  The carbon footprint of the United States is indeed quite large and heavy and deep.

I'd flown from San Diego to San Francisco for the Game Developers' Conference, and for a random late early summer weekend.

It's surprising to me how my behavior has changed now that I am in love.  Some things that I would not have considered before I'm doing now with nary a thought, which is a good sign for love and a bad sign for the environment, I guess.

This summer, we'll be flying to Kosrae, an island in Micronesia, essentially in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean.  It'll be a diving holiday, with stops at other islands both going and returning.  I'm learning that I need to accept the price of flying (both to myself personally and to the earth).  While I do not profess to be a paragon of environmentalism, I also don't want to be part of the problem, either.  I've always had mixed feelings about people like Al Gore, who travels quite extensively to tell people to, well, conserve resources and limit their carbon emissions.

There are sites online where one can have one's carbon footprint calculated according to travel and other carbon-inducing activities.  I've been to one in particular for class:

 http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/carboncalculator.

I found that this application takes many aspects of modern living into consideration.  It can be a bit depressing, though, to learn just how many metric tons (each at a thousand kilograms) one is responsible for.  It never feels like much while we're doing it, but every trip to the market where one hops in one's car, every restaurant dining experience, and, especially, flight, adds to the carbon loading our species puts on this limited earth.  The Earth is sending us a message that we shan't ignore, because if we continue to do so, we are signing our own (and our children's children's) death warrant.