Seattle to Remain Famous for Coffee and Rain
Thanksgiving Pairing Suggestion: Dessert Isn't Just a Meal
Eight Things A Seattle Sports Fan Can Be Thankful For
Seattlest Pix 09Nov25
Can't Miss It: Thanksgiving Eve
Went to this NetGreen thing today at Bergen Park in Ballard. Took the bus, even. Dozen or so "electeds" on hand (city, county, federal) with their attendant staffers. Lots of bikes. An electric Xebra Zapcar. Lots of self-congratulatory speeches.
Did you know Seattle has an Office of Sustainability & Environment? Dude who runs it, Steve Nicholas, holds Master's from Harvard, no less. He's all up for this project, whatever it is. So's city councilman Richard Conlin, who quotes Al Gore that global warming's a moral issue. Similar sentiments expressed by all the other electeds, including Jim McDermott. But we still don't get it.
Can't fault the environmental credentials of Tracy Carroll, the guy behind it all. Co-founder of Flexcar, after all.
Can't fault the notion of a "carbon footprint"--shorthand for our individual, personal contributions to global warming.
But now it gets hazy. Offsets? Pollution credits? Going "carbon neutral"? And how does this get applied to a single neighborhood like Ballard? Why Ballard, for that matter? Why should Ballard get to be "cooled down" and "carbon neutral"? How about the clubs in Pioneer Square and Belltown?
Whole thing looks like a terribly complicated way to raise money for environmental projects. And money's what it comes down to, make no mistake: you have to buy your way out of the mess you've made by sending cash to somebody else, who spends it on a far-away project that "offsets" your messy greenhouse-gas-emitting, global-warming lifestyle. A check for 50 bucks ought to cover it, buy you a year's absolution.
Worthwhile? Maybe. Practical? Doubtful. Yet another example of elitist navel-gazing? Sure looks like it. No wonder "liberal environmentalists" have such a lousy reputation. And we are one!
Buy a latte at Starbucks (legit! No coupon!) and wait for bus. Transfer still valid.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Jesus. Obtuse much?
Why Ballard? Why not? Some community has got to try and improve the state of things in this dam world and it might as well be Ballard. It is the new rich one in this city with a ton of new condos going up that represent a great opportunity to "green" the neighborhood via better building practices.
What's so "hazy" about pollution offsets and going carbon neutral? The concept is pretty clear to me: Buy enough credits on the open market to offset the amount of carbon you emit by driving, flying, turning on the lights and listening to live music in Pioneer Square (does anyone still go there?) and that, in turn, finances projects that generate power without emitting carbon. Or it takes those carbon credits off the market and drives the price for the remainig credits up, making it more expensive to keep emitting carbon (well, if companies were forced to limit their carbon emissions in this country, it would).
It's not a hard concept. Even our president understands it enough to oppose it.
This isn't just "elitist navel gazing." It's a start. It's an attempt to spread the word and show people how they can make a difference on an individual level since the government isn't going to try, yet.
What is hazy is why you are trying so hard to be so obtuse about this and why you wrote this post in shorthand. Next time, take a couple of mintues and use a few complete sentences.
That's still not very clear, unfortunately. Even the wikipedia entry for "Carbon offset" could use some work. The way I understand it, you do some kind of environmental activity (cleanup of some kind, for example) and you get carbon "credits" for it which you can apply against the carbon you consume on a day to day basis. Or you can sell them and maintain your carbon debt. Or...something. On an individual level I don't see how this can work. You'd probably have to spend your entire life planting trees to get out from under one cross-country plane trip. Even at the neighborhood level I feel it's primarily symbolic.
It's true that tree planting doesn't really get the job done since it takes something like 4 acres of old growth forest to be planted to sequester the CO2 from one person's automobile emissions (not terribly sure of the acerage, but it's close to that).
But, as is pointed out by the Sightline Institue your purchase of carbon offsets is
In other words, you don't actually plant the trees but donate money into a bigger project that actually DOES make a difference.The program being talked about in that posting is Carbon Fund and I don't know if they are actually succesful, but others, such as TerraPass are making a difference. That organazination has offset 79 million pounds of CO2 emissions thanks to carbon offset purchases made by their customers. The money spent there, according to their Web site, is invested into renewable enrgy projects like wind farms that permanently replace the need for dirty coal and gas plants. You can buy offsets for your car emissions and more (they just announced a partnership with Expedia so you can buy offsets to balance out the fossil fuels used in your flight right from Expedia) and all you need to do is input how much you drive and the kind of car you drive (or the flight information) into their calculator to figure out how much you need to offset.
For more local effects, the Bonnevile Environmental Foundation lets you off set your power consumption and invests in clean energy and energy efficiency programs in the Northwest.
I point all this out because it's a common misconception that any of these activities are believed to be the answer to global warming but they're not. They are all steps in the right direction and are all pieces of the puzzle. Small steps to be sure, but even small steps help and the more of us that take them, the bigger their impact.
Hello Ronald:
This movement is so practical it appeals to all. It is not a liberal agenda action. We need all hands on deck and this is something we can all rally around, raises awareness, and creates change now that will spur a less fossil fuel intensive society.
It is a action of balance and responsibility. Being carbon neutral is the number one thing each and every one of us should do while we all strive to reduce our impact.
It's an empowering, inexpensive, responsible, and balanced action.
We have limited money and time and the funding of carbon offset projects (i.e. truck and cruise ship electrification, climate cool concrete, and much more) allows us to address
our climate problem at the lowest overall cost, which leaves
us more money to spend on the other things, such as food,
housing, security, and education, which are some other pressing needs.
By raising the awareness of each of our GHG impact and giving us a common language to speak from we can not only fund great GHG reducing actions now, we can begin to speak about what actions we can take in our own lives that make the biggest impact on reducing our impact for the money and time we put into it.
Achieving NetGreen does not mean just counteracting your contribution it means striving to reduce your footprint in the most cost effective manner - whether that is changing habit, weatherproofing your house, living closer to work, etc.. One should pay less from year to year to be carbon neutral by reducing their impact - that is what I would like to see happen.
Please go to AchieveNetGreen.org to learn more, to calculate your impact, and to counteract it today, and learn about and implement the many ways of reducing your impact as soon as you can.
Please don't just write it off as I think Ronald was suggesting.
Thanks Ronald for your thoughts. What is your suggestion for reducing GHG now in the most cost effective, quick to implement way - cause that is what we need to do.
I'd be very interested in talking with you Ronald or anyone who want to explore this deeper. Please call me @ 206.391.6744 or email me @ tracy@achievenetgreen.org OR for more information go to www.achievenetgreen.org
Take care and thanks for caring so much to come to the event and think about it. And thanks for your kind words about me.
Tracy Carroll