Going Green

Green is one of my favorite colors, however there are many shades of green that I think are downright ugly. I think this statement also applies to the recently revived "Going Green Movement". This issue is filled with so many half truths that it is no wonder many have their heads spinning. I have spent a large part of my free time outdoors, "in the woods". I have a strong appreciation for preserving what we have. I take a very naturalist's view of the environment, however I am not in any camp that only uses the environment to further their political agenda or personal gain.

Permit me to digress to make a point. Hopefully you have heard of the plight and demise of honeybees in the US and elsewhere. This is a very important issue that has repercussions throughout our entire food supply. When Congress finally approved funding for research to identifying the cause and prevention of the honeybees disappearing, researchers came out in droves trying to capture some of those dollars. This included "researchers" that could prove, if only they could get the funding, that the bees were disappearing because of cell phones, power lines, or God's Rapture calling them home. The problem is that if some of these are funded it takes the badly needed dollars that would support legitimate research that has a chance of finding the answers.

The above is one reason why I am very skeptical about "research that proves.....", you name the subject. Global warming is a hot topic (sorry for the pun) and depending on who you believe has many different reasons for occurring. For fairness let me state my cliff note view. Is the climate warmer now than in 1970? Absolutely! Do we really know why? I doubt it, although some theories should be looked at. Is it caused by man? Maybe but I don't see any hard facts that scientifically prove it. There is plenty of research opinions but scientific proof is something else. It is also a fact that Mars has been slightly warming during the same time period. We have to be really careful when drawing conclusions. When someone gives up a reason and a solution, I tend to follow the money as the first litmus test.

I live in Pennsylvania where there are many older coal fired power plants. Some of these give of higher than desired mercury levels when burning. One answer is to buy clean air credits form a cleaner power plant in say California. While one can argue that in the global view there is less mercury being released per total kW generated, this does nothing to help the mercury levels in and around the plant in PA. It is cheaper to pay the for the credits than clean up the source. This is why I have a problem with someone like Vice President Gore when he states that all the power he uses comes from renewable sources. That is great, but the fact that his home uses more electricity in one month than the average American uses in a year does not, in my opinion, make him "green". It tells me he can afford to support the pretense he is green and actually profits from it. Again, follow the money.

I will give one more small example of claiming green. I know a company that produces an agricultural product and claims they have determined their "carbon footprint" this product. They then buy carbon credits to offset the footprint. They ship this product 6000 miles to one of there markets. The sad part is within 100 miles of this market there are a number of suppliers that produce the same product and can deliver it using much less fossil fuels. Yet the company that is shipping it a quarter of the way around the world is advertising carbon neutral and green. Doesn't it make more sense to just buy it locally??

So what do I do? I turn the lights off when not needed, use CFLs when ever possible, recycle water and other materials, reduced my average driving by a few thousand miles per year, have planted hundreds of trees in the last 20 years and consider myself a good steward of the land. On the other hand, I take hot, albeit short, showers, use air conditioning and don't drive a hybrid. I think I am a medium shade of green and could always improve, but I am not willing to live in a hollow log.

I am pretty sure I only touched on this subject but hopefully it will at least cause you to question when you here something or someone is claiming green, and they are actually doing it and not just pretending.