Minimizing My Carbon Footprint

T was asking me the other day what I'm doing now that she and the kids are all off on vacation. I told her I was minimizing my carbon footprint, which of course brought up the obvious retort, "What is a carbon footprint?"

I guess it's the latest new age-vegan-Greenpeace-global warming thing. According to carbonfootprint.com, "A Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house [sic] gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide."

In short, if you're breathing, you're contributing to global warming.

Of course, we can't all just keel over and stop breathing just to save the earth. So the tree-huggers came up with the idea that we can at least feel less guilty about global warming by buying what they call carbon offsets. (Who knew there was a shopping angle to this?)

The premise is that these carbon offsets fund "green" projects all around the world. It's certainly an innovative way to get people to contribute to tree-planting and similar activities. ("Don't worry about your 12-cylinder SUV; just buy another carbon credit.")

Interestingly, the idea has taken enough root in Europe, such that even Buckingham Palace bought carbon credits to offset the airplane emissions from Queen Elizabeth's recent visit to the U.S.

As for me, I'm just seeing how low our electric bill can get without the entire family watching TV, lighting up the house, using air conditioners, etc. So in the past month, my carbon emissions have been confined to surfing the web and using the electric fan.

Considering that temperatures here have been approaching 40C, I am so glad that T and kids are arriving on Friday - just so I can start maximizing my carbon footprint again!