Buying off our guilt

On Thursday when I was driving back from the airport, I had the joy of hearing this piece on Talk of the Nation. Peter Schweizer talks about carbon off setting, exploring other ways we could offset our guilt, such as, maybe you could eat as much junk food as you want and get as fat as you want, but offset it by paying for someone else to go to the gym. In case you can't tell, I think offsetting is a crock. I remember when it came out that Al Gore uses a lot of energy and he responded that he offsets it. Ok, I love Al, but this made me angry. I live, with my husband and two kids, in a 1,000 square foot house. We've been debating for over a year about whether or not it would be appropriate to add 300 sq. feet to our house since that would contribute more carbon to the environment. So to hear about Al Gore and his huge house rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe instead of paying someone to plant trees in India, he could quit driving an SUV or maybe install some solar panels.

But I shouldn't be so hard on him. We all have our little environmental secrets. I hate to chop veggies. I love the idea of gardening and getting fresh produce from the Farmer's Market, and I love the flavor of fresh veggies, but Kirk has to chop them up or I'll let them rot in the refrigerator, in spite of my best intentions. Janisse Ray wrote this article about preaching to the choir. We environmentalists like to complain about the "others" who are doing horrible things to our world, but it probably wouldn't hurt for us to look in our own closets a little.