Tag Archives: global_warming

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I’m not “Saving Money on Gas”

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It occured to me the other day when we were driving in the car with the three year old and talking about biking and driving and “saving” gas that I’ve still been buying into this lie.
A while ago I realized how ridiculous it is to come home from a shopping trip and say I “Saved $143.52 today!” The truth is a spent a bunch of money, regardless of how on sale the item I purchased was. That was step one in my reality check.
Today I realized, biking to work doesn’t “save gas” it rather keeps gas from being used that doesn’t need to be used. In the same way, when I choose not to eat red meat (which I grew up not eating), I don’t walk around saying, “I’m saved a pig’s leg and a cow today!”

Very little in my life are necessities, and this is probably true for you as well. I think we can probably make a case for our “need” to go to our job and/or school, and therefore I can understand a “need” to drive to those locations if they aren’t in walking or biking distance.
What I’ve realized though, is I’ve been hoping in my car for far too many “wants.” If using too much gas is a problem, then I need to work on changing my lifestyle and my choices.

That’s I think one of the reasons I find this place the MinusCarProject so inspiring. Here’s the mission statement:

The MinusCar Project exists because I believe people that think that the globe is warming because of human activity, specifically carbon emitting human activity, might be right. Because I think they might be right, I think humans need to change. And because I think humans need to change, I think I need to change.

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An Inconvenient Truth: It was stinking hot yesterday

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Yesterday, I was driving around in a vehicle with no air conditioning at work, I then biked home in the sweltering heat, and was very excited to sit down in my cool air conditioned home. Sure is hot out there.

Mindy and I took off to go see the very talked about documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. We’d both already done our fair share of reading up on the subject, so the movie wasn’t shocking, but it was fairly scary when the reality of the timeline began to hit you.
Mindy and I left and discussed a little how we felt, and I shared that I was fairly apathetic to the idea that many people would change. I feel if anything most folks would be content to sit back and just see if what Al Gore shared in the film ends up being true or not.
Mindy was more hopeful. She pointed out that she really felt like people would listen and begin to try and make changes. They might not be drastic changes but every little bit helps. I realized Mindy’s right, and I need to take the “glass half-full” approach on this one and encourage others to see it and make some changes in their lives.

By the way, the movie is based on a presentation by Al Gore (it pretty much is the presentation) concerning global warming. It’s very informative and engaging enough that you won’t lose interest (there’s a reason it’s so popular).

Here’s how to get started: