Don't Drive Guilty
My conscience has been nagging me lately about my driving. I live about 10 miles from my office and about 20 from my son's school, and busses don't run anywhere near my house. That adds up to a lot of driving and a lot of CO2 and particulate matter released into the atmosphere. It's also contributing to the country's dependence on foreign oil and, on a selfish note, doing a stellar job of depleting my bank account. So what finally happened is I broke down and bought a 2002 Toyota Prius, but before I did that, I discovered the wonderful TerraPass.
As I've said before in this space, it's unreasonable to think that everyone can go out and buy a hybrid or, beter yet, take non-combustible means of transportation everywhere they go--there are too many outside factors like families, the price of centrally located homes, the lack of public transportation, etc. that leave people in situations where they have to rely on their cars. Now, however, there is something simple everyone can do to counteract some of the harmful effects of driving--get a TerraPass. All you do is go to the site, calculate your car's emissions for the year, and pay between $29.95-$79.95, depending on your particular vehicle and driving habits. That money then goes to fund clean energy projects that reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions. So in effect, you're paying to keep things stable--you're still driving and emitting CO2, but you're also helping reduce that same amount of CO2. Plus, you get a cool static cling decal and a bumper sticker to tell people how you're taking responsibility for global warming and doing your part to stop it--let's face it, as humans, we want people to know when we do something positive. So, even though I now have a hybrid, I'm still emitting 4,832 pounds of CO2 per year, and I'm getting a TerraPass to make up for that. Oh, and you can buy them for people as gifts, too. On an unrelated note, my birthday is in two days.
As I've said before in this space, it's unreasonable to think that everyone can go out and buy a hybrid or, beter yet, take non-combustible means of transportation everywhere they go--there are too many outside factors like families, the price of centrally located homes, the lack of public transportation, etc. that leave people in situations where they have to rely on their cars. Now, however, there is something simple everyone can do to counteract some of the harmful effects of driving--get a TerraPass. All you do is go to the site, calculate your car's emissions for the year, and pay between $29.95-$79.95, depending on your particular vehicle and driving habits. That money then goes to fund clean energy projects that reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions. So in effect, you're paying to keep things stable--you're still driving and emitting CO2, but you're also helping reduce that same amount of CO2. Plus, you get a cool static cling decal and a bumper sticker to tell people how you're taking responsibility for global warming and doing your part to stop it--let's face it, as humans, we want people to know when we do something positive. So, even though I now have a hybrid, I'm still emitting 4,832 pounds of CO2 per year, and I'm getting a TerraPass to make up for that. Oh, and you can buy them for people as gifts, too. On an unrelated note, my birthday is in two days.
posted by Carter at 7:18 AM
1 Comments:
By the way, I didn't consider this because I guess I'm just overly trusting, but some people may be a little skeptical of TerraPass. If that's the case, you can find verification of their legitimacy here - http://www.terrapass.com/verification.html.
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