Carbon Footprint Birthday:The Gift that Gave Twice

My birthday brought an unexpected gift. The gift of an opportunity to be heard. For my birthday we had decided to go to a disc golf course 35 mi away. There were 5 of us including my 6 yr old grandson who would be in his car seat. My wife and my son were convinced that we would have to take two cars since there would not be room for 3 in the back seat. Making my climate footprint pitch, I said we could fit and offered to sit in the back seat,

It is interesting to witness the evolution of the terminology surrounding the climate emergency. Climate emergency really is the appropriate term for the critical circumstances we now face. Years ago it was called global warming. That was changed to climate change when the Republicans thought that term too alarmist. A few years ago, I started to use the term climate crisis. Now I use the term climate emergency. It truly is a climate emergency calling for all hands on deck. Those who have denied the gravity of our climate emergency, and its fossil fuel origins, will find their voices muted by the increased winds and hurricanes they have denied.

I have long wrestled with the question of how to galvanize people to action in the face of the climate emergency. Even my family well invested in concern about the climate don’t fully want to embrace the level of the emergency. I wrestle with how to motivate folks into action while not causing them to be the proverbial deer in the headlights.

So on this day, my birthday, I pushed the envelope. The dilemma involved a minor squeezing in the back seat a heavier carbon footprint by taking two cars. Personal inconvenience v the climate. Dan and Wendy weighed in heavily on the discomfort side. Out of deference to my birthday, my family complied and agreed to take one car with me in the back. In fact , as it turned out there was really not any discomfort.

The following day, Mother’s day, we decided to go biking with Wendy. This time the issue was bike racks. In order to take all four bikes, we had to switch the bike rack or take two cars. I actually was prepared to take two cars as the distance and hence the carbon footprint was not great . As it turned out , Wendy and Adam with no pressure from me, decided to switch out the bike rack to reduce the footprint. Turned out it took nearly 30 min to do that. But I was impressed with their choice.

On my birthday the planet won twice, and with little prodding from me. While my sons gave me a bike for my birthday, the real present was the gift of being heard about the climate emergency that I was given on Mother’s day.