branson and such.
Since I last wrote about looming explosion of the earth, mass riots, and flaming trees, blah blah blah, a few things have happened that ought to be noted. Uh huh, I’m talking about oil and its derivatives. The consequences of its use are often poorly understood, but overall the masses get the gist, understood by a simple mathmatical equation: oil = bad.
Ok, so what has happened? Well, Mr. Virgin himself - Richard Branson - decided to contribute all proceeds (profits) for Virgin Transportation (airlines & trains) for the next 10 years to the Clinton Global Initiative. How much is that? Oh, you know, something in the order of three billion dollars. Now that’s radness if I haven’t heard it before. Yeah, really. A big shot besides ol’ Al is pulling out the stops. He may not have heard the call, but damn’t some people are getting on the same page. Average joe’s are learning what they can do to lessen their footprint (i.e. me). And that’s gonna start to mean change.
It’s at this point I must thank the early adopters, or those who started the cascade of thought, the awareness about our world, it’s beauty, and what it’s going to take to preserve it. Thank you.
Numero two. I converted the incandescent light bulbs in my house to compact fluorescents. why? this + less wattage means less energy which means less carbon dioxide emissions from the power plant. That means a small step forward for our planet. Or, I guess, a smaller step backwards. But that’s semantics and you’re not here to discuss that. So i’m rollin’ into Target with my brother yesterday, and i’m telling him about the light conversion. “What are you, turning into a tree hugger or something?”
No Al, I explained, This world will change when everyone cares about the environment. If people like you and I can start thinking about how we can make change, and if we can influence those around us to make little steps towards change, we can influence big time the direction that this world is rockin. We can make it the noble/cool/right to think about the environment and how that affects our future. Oh, I see. And he got it too.
Number tres. Google pledges to build an electric car. Google? Hmmm. Yeah, google. Not Ford, Not GM, they’re busy laying off workers because they didn’t exactly forsee the way Americans thoughts were drifting. Kinda hard to imagine, but that’s neither here nor there. So check it out for yourself, Google has a for profit philanthropic arm over at google.org. Sound strange? It is, but i’ve got a feeling it will work. As much as I think google is the evil they once pledged to never be, If they succeed at this, at building EVs for the masses, then they will have succeeded in uprooting the marketplace again. And that too, is greatness. And likely, un-evil.
I’m learning, researching, caring, spreading, and sharing. And I like it. I feel like I’m doing something, something good, by hardly doing anything at all. Think of it as volunteering for the Earth. I’ll post a list on my site soon, of things that we can do to minimize our ecological footprint. Don’t scoff, just read, and consider. We’ll appreciate it in 20 years, and quite often, almost immediately in our pocket books.
Filed by ryanroth at September 24th, 2006 under Life