It's horrible to think that my baby's carbon footprint is about 35 times greater than that of a baby in, say, Nepal, or Bolivia--i.e., in most of the developing world. It's horrible to think that my own footprint is even worse than my baby's, and that I'm doing little or nothing at the moment to make things better. My house is not very conveniently situated, let's say, and so I'm driving somewhere with the baby almost every day.
It's foolish--because in thirty years, almost no one will be living like this. Almost no one but the extremely rich will be able to do so. And the answer is not hybrid cars. We're idiots if we think hybrid cars or even electric cars will solve the problem (unless the electricity is generated almost exclusively by renewables--solar, wind, and so forth--and that's nowhere on the horizon right now).
The main problem is, not enough people are making the choice to live more simply--to buy houses that are within walking or biking distance from shops, libraries, parks, and schools; to travel less; to eat lower down on the food chain, and buy food at farmer's markets; to stop buying so much unnecessary crap in general. And we need to develop communities designed for this kind of simple living. Most people realize this; and some people are even making these kinds of changes in their lives.
I see my own family making these changes, but it might take us five years, not the next one or two--for various reasons which I won't discuss here. However--in five years, I hope to be setting a much better example for the little guy. And there are plenty of changes I could make tomorrow, if I wanted to badly enough.
Well. It's time to stop talking about it and do something. I hate to think of the kind of world my son could inherit when he reaches adulthood.
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