taking part in the 350 challenge…

although i am opposed to trading carbon offset credits on the open market (see this post for the reasons why), today i accepted Brighter Planet’s 350 Challenge and added the badge to my blog. why? because this is, as BP freely acknowledges, simply a way to focus attention on the growing threat of climate change. this blog, in and of itself, is using neither more nor less carbon than it used before i posted the badge; however, the badge itself is a call for change that others may see, acknowledge, act on and propagate.

350.org, the inspiration behind Brighter Planet’s badge program, is an online agent for positive environmental change. i urge you to visit, sign up, brainstorm and perhaps start an action of your own. i’ve got one in mind that will get rolling as soon as i am able to make the time.

still, i am about to unnecessarily burn a bit of carbon this morning by driving to a memorial service that i would prefer not to attend. why not? it’s a family thing. the woman being memorialized was my first cousin and, at this point in our (mid)lives, a near-total stranger. i’d laid eyes on her exactly twice in the last twenty-something years, and spoke to her on the phone exactly never. she was a good and friendly woman, it’s not that we didn’t get along, it’s simply that our lives and interests did not intersect. we might have passed each other on the street without knowing it — unlikely, though, as we lived a few thousand miles apart.

so why am i going? quite simply because, if i don’t, i will be in a world of shit with my aging father, who will take it as a personal slight. why am i dreading going? because there will be other cousins in attendance whom i would rather not see. cousins whom, if they were afire, i would not spare the piss to quench. in short, it’s not likely to be an especially pleasant day, and the fact that i’ve got to waste gasoline to do it is just an extra spoonful of sadplanet icing on the cake.

but hey, i got my badge.