GOALS: footprint

OK, this is a new one, something that makes a lot of sense, something that one might assume I'd tackled in the past but haven't.

I've worked for an environmental non-profit for ten years now: WWF. You might think that I'd have some kind of concern about my own ecological footprint or that of my family's. But, though at 18 I wanted to be an EarthFirster and save the world through eco-sabotage, I somehow don't even have the faintest interest in minimizing my own footprint.

John Francis, the writer, saw an oil spill in the San Francisco Bay back in 1971 and stopped using motorized vehicles for twenty years because of it! Now that's dedication. And I don't care if his individual commitment didn't make a dent in our global oil consumption, he made a dent in the universe. I think I need to be a better global citizen, and I don't give a crap if that sounds naive or too much like a do-gooder. I need to do it. I need to set a good example for my kids. It's just the right thing to do.

I'm not giving up my 1985 FJ-60 land cruiser, that's that. (and I'm not giving up coffee either, damnit!) But I don't commute -- I probably drive 100 miles a week at most. But there's plenty I could do, and taking radical steps toward self recreation should involve my own planetary impact. I'll have to work on coming up with specific goals on that -- ones that feed into my other goals. I think I'll start with making my own soap.

Maybe that's it -- think about it more like self-sufficiency rather than footprint. I like the idea -- scratch that, love the idea -- of living "off the grid." There's a lot of militia-man in me, a lot of less-government in me -- if you could strip away all the hatred, racism, etc. Being self-sufficient is something that strikes me to the core.