Human Offsets

 My wife introduced me a long time ago to the idea of trip linking. If we happen to be going out to Target to pick up some of life's necessities that can be found there, she would suggest that we also take that opportunity to drop off some dry cleaning. And maybe pick up something for dinner. And why not stop off and see if grandma needs help getting her wi-fi hooked up. Because this is more efficient and we feel better about all that gas we would be using if we made separate trips for all these errands. And since we're driving our hybrid car, we can feel all the more smug about the way we are saving our precious natural resources and avoiding putting fewer parts per million of carbon into our atmosphere. 

So we can get a deal on Tombstone frozen pizza. 

This is similar to the rationalization I make just about once a week as I ride my bike to work each day and enjoy our Meatless Monday dinner so that I can feel good about the cheeseburger I am going to enjoy on Friday night. I am pleased and happy to be relieved of any guilt for my carnivorous habits. 

I'm a good person, and I do all these amazing things to save the planet. Like put solar panels on our roof. And stay put instead of flying to points east or north or south. Or the way we recycle. We are monsters when it comes to keeping things out of the landfill. We sort varieties of plastic and if there is a way to re-purpose anything that might be labeled by someone less, we'll do it. So we can spend those other waking moments planning our trips to Disneyland. 

It's a lot of give and take, but we all know what the bottom line is: We are not fooling anyone. We are consumers and we consume like so many others. And the tomatoes we grew in the planter box out front, though delicious and bountiful, did not keep us from going to the grocery store up the street to buy more produce. Organic, of course. And we can walk there. So we don't feel so bad about those plastic bags when we forget the reusable ones we always bring along. Except when we forget them. 

The earth will forgive us, won't it?