Tuesday, April 22, 2008

AL GORE!!! and Earth Day!


In an alternate history a lot of good things have happened in the past 8 years since Al Gore won the presidential election. America set the global standard when it came to taking climate change seriously. Trillions of dollars were used on education and health care. Strangely there were know 911 terrorist attacks. George W. Bush choked to death on a pretzel. Dick Cheney was arrested after firing a shotgun at a longtime friend while hunting.
But I mean these are just ramblings about parallel realities I got from my psychic homeless friend. He's a quantum mechanic... in a parallel world he's a king, in another world he's a dictator and in three other worlds he was elected democratically. But he's homeless in this one to equal out his karma and get a taste of the everyman experience. yeah its a bit complicated.

Anyway, all this earth day action has got me thinking about Al Gore. Conservative critics like to say he's using this global warming hype as a way to get rich and famous... which is bunk as far as I'm concerned... but I've learned to be continuously agnostic about the trustworthiness of politicians. He's using his credibility to bring light to subject that is annoyingly pigeonholed as hippie bullshit. But come on! If you don't believe that global warming is a reality, you should consider running your engine in garage for a couple hours. (oh... disclaimer: don't do that.)

Wow... the environment gets me all worked up. I have get some water. Check out this video.



So lets go through this list and see how well I did...

1)ECO FRIENDLY HOUSE! I rent my apartment and it is pretty rundown... it's weather stripping skipped town which means its cold in the winter and my kitchen is full of ants in the summer... yipes.

2)TRANSPORTATION! I don't have a car, I walk and use the underground Metro mostly. I'm looking into trains for my next big trip.

TIP - 2.5 Push for laws, policies and treaties that take climate change seriously.

3)Energy Star! I guess when it comes to buying stuff I'll tr to get an energy star product, but I find most of my appliances on the street...

4)I found a Carbon Footprint Calculator, the one on the Inconvienient Truth website is only for the United States, but this one covers the globe.

My current Carbon Footprint is 5.464!
* The average footprint for people in Canada is 20 tonnes.
* The average for the industrial nations is about 11 tonnes.
* The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 tonnes.
* To combat climate change the worldwide average needs to reduce to 2 tonnes.

My main problem is in my Secondary Footprint which is 2.940, half is due to my eating habits and budget... and if you like to go see movies and thats a goddamn ton of emissions, apparently.

5)Live carbon neutral. I think the amount of re-using and reducing I do is helping balance the scales of Justice, but I guess I could plant a garden.

6)Work related. I have food containers and spill proof mugs but I still have a bad habit of eating out, I try to ask for less wrappers and stuff but sometimes its unavoidable... admitting this makes me feel terrible.

7)Big Business! I don't invest money in anything except food, so I guess that means I should pay for better more friendly foods. Oh and when it comes to writing big business, I'm gonna get my pen out.

8)TEACH OTHERS about this whole process.

9)Vote Green, or for someone who fears melting glaciers more than big business and terrorists.

As for that whole inventing something that could reduce existing carbon emissions? I'm working on that too, but I think I more or less stole the idea from Spaceballs.
(I was going to post a picture from the movie and while i was searching Google for a good picture, it took me to a blog that was also talking about reducing emissions and was basically making the same comment.) So... I guess I'll have to think of something completely original and not in anyway referencing Mel Brooks.


Well that about wrap. Except!
I'd like to give some props to Captain Ozone, a real life super hero environmentalist from the future! Who inspires me oh so much.

Take Care everyone!
Mx Justice!

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