According to the Official Records Division of the Slate/Treehugger Green Challenge my final score is 8399, which means I’ve promised to take the annual equivalent of 0.86 cars off the road.
I have reduced 45.95% of the carbon emissions I reported at the start of the challenge, and I’ve actually reduced 343% of the emissions I pledged to cut over the last eight weeks.
To reward myself, I think I’ll have me an organic beer.
And so all things must end including the Slate/Treehugger Green Challenge carbon diet. In this final action quiz I pledged to reduce my carbon load by 617 lbs or .06 cars.
This brings my total reduction to 8498 lbs (~.89 cars) off of my original footprint of 18274 lbs (~1.83 cars), a 47% reduction to a new total footprint of 9776 lbs, which appears to be less than the equivalent of one car so I’m assuming that the statistical cars used for these calculations must be gas guzzlers because I can’t seen how my footprint could be less than a car since I do, in fact, own a car, and did not plan to purchase any carbon offsets.
Regardless of imaginary cars, though, the final quiz focused on home and office issues, and I pledged to use recycled paper, avoid printing emails whenever possible, reduce my garbage by 25% and replace the monitor with an Energystar model.
I’d already done these things, except the garbage which – based on unscientific calculations – has been reduced by at least 50% just by recycling all paper. I’m basing this on the fact that it now takes three weeks to fill my garbage can instead of one.
If I could recycle the dog shit in the backyard, I’d probably be able to save the world myself. But I scoop it up so that I can use the unpowered hand mower that I’ve had for a few years now, which was another item on the action quiz that I’ve already got covered.
My action quiz results included the following information:
Overall, this whole thing hasn’t really opened my eyes to anything I didn’t already know. In most cases, I was already doing the things that they are encouraging.
I guess that bottom line is that climate change is one of those issues in which anyone can make simple, easy changes that when combined with others doing the same can ripple outwards and have effects far greater than we might initially imagine.
Not everyone can do everything, but I think anyone can make some changes. All it requires is changing a few habits.
Apparently there are awards for blogs. The blogs that people actually read, anyway. The ones that are closer to the bright center of the blogosphere.
This year, there is an award for best science blog and the Bad Astronomer has summoned his legions and asked them to encourage their own readers to vote for The Bad Astronomy Blog. There is intense rivalry between the astronomer and the biologist who runs Pharyngula who feels he should win.
I’m voting for the Bad Astronomy Blog because it’s one of my daily reads and it keeps me connected with a passion I’ve had all my life. I encourage you to do likewise, but regardless of who wins, I feel lucky to have found out about Pharyngula, which is a very cool science blog and will probably become a daily read as well.
The best thing about this? Everyone may vote more than once. I suspect even the dead are allowed to vote. Of course what should I expect in this outlaw region that is the blogosphere.
On Saturday we went to Gruene, did a little Christmas shoppin’, some food eatin’ and, yes, even a bit of beer drinkin’.
It’s about the same down there every year, but then some samenesses are pretty refreshing, whether it’s lunch at The Gristmill or listening to some band I’ve never heard play in Gruene Hall while we put off the drive back up to Austin.
I enjoy walking off lunch and wandering through the old junk stores along the main strip, but my favorite is Gruene Hall. There’s something about sitting around in these old Hill Country beer joints forgetting about the world and everything in it.
Most years the trip to Gruene is when December starts to feel like Christmas.
Yesterday Emily, Ernest and I celebrated our birthday and just as she did not write and he did not draw yesterday,
I forgot to post at every chance
And finished blogging — then —
…at least for the weekend, but in my revel, I forgot to hound blog. So, instead of tales of my greys, I will point you, gentle reader, in the direction of Ironicus Maximus where you shall learn the tale of Greyhound Grace who saved a man’s life and probably earned herself a permanent place on the couch, if not her very own couch.
Today, I’m guest blogging at In the Pink Texas again. This time about cameras on the border.
Today there was a message for Vida on my answering machine. Apparently some financial planner would like to help her sort out her debt. I jotted the information down in case I should ever meet anyone named Vida, I could give her the message and perhaps help her out of her debt hole.
That was the only message, and it left me wondering how many telemarketers attempting to call me dial the wrong number leaving opportunities that should rightfully be mine on the doorsteps of others.
Lots, I hope.
Week seven of the Slate/Treehugger Green Challenge has arrived and this week’s topic is water. Specifically hot water since water don’t heat itself. Once again, the quiz reveals we’re already pretty green regarding the relationship between CO2 and H2O.
Short showers? Already doing it. It’s really simple. Short shower = longer sleep. ‘Nuff said. Low flow shower head? No. Here’s where I’ll play the hey-I-have-a-hybrid-card. Boil only the water I need for my tea? Check. Run dishes when the dishwasher is full? check. Keep the water heater at 120F or less? Probably. Mine has low-med-high with little hash marks in between. It’s set one hash above med as near as I can tell. It’s hard to get to and checking it would require backing the car out, which would require starting it and adding needlessly to the CO2 in the atmo.
For extra credit, I pledged to do things I was intending to do anyway: replace the water heater with a tankless model when it needs replacing and replace our current Energystar dishwasher with another Energystar when it dies.
The results page says this:
The last two I won’t be doing at this time.
So, this week we shed some water weight and reduced our carbon load by 911 lbs or .09 cars. This brings the total reduction to 7881 lbs or 43% of my original total of 18274 lbs.
Saving cold water also helps as well, which reminds me of my grandmother’s admonition: ‘If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down.’ She lived her whole life in the deserts of Arizona. We won’t go that far.
I haven’t watched a single movie since July (when the last Monday Movie Roundup appeared). It’s not that I don’t like movies – it was my first profession, after all – but I just don’t find myself wanting to invest the time.
Or perhaps it’s that once perfection was achieved with Lord of the Rings, there has been really no need for any more movies to be made.
But seeing as how Hollywood hasn’t yet packed it in, something was bound to strike my fancy…
Serenity (Joss Whedon, 2005)
Though not watching movies, we have been catching up on old TV shows that we missed, and the best of these was the unfortunately short-lived (damn you, FOX, are you good for anything!?!) Firefly. The series follows the adventures of the crew of Serenity, a firefly-class starship, who earn their keep running smuggling and petty crime jobs out on the border planets where the all-powerful Alliance doesn’t have much authority.
Visually, the show is a wonderful hodge-podge of science fiction technology blended with the imagery of the old west with its gamblers, gunfighters, outlaws and saloons. Such is life on the border worlds. I loved it immediately when I realized that it played with the best ideas of Lucas’ Star Wars universe (imperfect technology, space pirates, charismatic scoundrels) without doing all the do-goody rebel alliance business. Of course, Captain Mal Reynolds used to be a rebel fighter, but his side lost the civil war and he lit out for the territories in his old freighter.
We watched the eleven episodes that aired and immediately rented the film Serenity, which picks up two months later and attempts to tie up most of the loose ends from the series’ early cancellation. I won’t say much about the film except that I enjoyed it, and wish mightily that there will be a sequel someday.
The Firefly universe is one of the richest and most fascinating that I’ve seen in a long time. It’s full of potential, and I’d love to see it explored more thoroughly.
Damn you, FOX. Damn you to the border moons.
Phoebe, ever the faithful camera assistant, checks for dust on the lens.
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