alan wells

Doesn’t quite have a catchy ring to it, but I gave it a shot anyway. Most of my friends know I’m interested in sustainability, and I’m also not the biggest holiday person. The environmentalist in me finds it hard to square with the rediculous consumption and waste that seems to define this time of year. I love spending time with family and enjoying the good cheer, but all the presents, wasted food, and other things are always bothering me.

So I tried to do things a little differently this year. For my extended family, I donated to www.carbonfund.org to offset 50,000 pounds of CO2 production for my family (really only 1/10 of what one person produces in a year, but I think it covers the impact of just our family christmas on the planet). So I guess you could say that for the first time ever, I took away something for christmas instead of giving. But I still felt wierd about that, so I bought a copy of An Inconvenient Truth book for every household in that attended my family xmas celebration – which turned out to be a great choice because the books producers have chosen to make it a carbon-neutral production by devoting some of the proceeds to carbon-offsetting.

It took a little explanation to the family to get them into it, but they all seemed to like the idea, and I feel better about my small stand against the waste of this time of year. And it started a family discussion on electric vehicles, the sort of topic we don’t often talk about on Christmas. What every family in the US started doing this? I think it would be a great step in the right direction.

More info, if you’re interested:
http://www.climatecrisis.net/
http://www.carbonfund.org

Happy Holidays all, lets shoot for a carbon-neutral Christmas in 2007!