Throughout the 2bumbleb-journey I had concerns about our positive and negative impacts on the issues of global sustainability. I knew that taking the airplane and leading a relatively yuppie kind of lifestyle in developing countries was not at all inline with my wish to respect the principles of sustainable development, where we should be trying to live a low-carbon lifestyle based on the interest returns of Mother Earth without destroying the foundations of prosperity for our future generations. Even though we tried to travel gently, slowly and whenever possible avoid air transfers and travel overland with public transports or private sailing boats, the rough calculation of our ecological footprint showed a fairly exorbitant result of 6.5 biologically productive hectares each, which would mean that we needed more than 3 earths if all individuals had the same lifestyle as us. On the other hand, if we had stayed in Switzerland and lived on with the same lifestyle as during 2006, our ecological footprint would have been even greater. No, we are not proud.
As a matter of fact there are no miracles: Wanting to practise a wonderful sport like kite surfing that basically only applies natural energies like wind and waves, unfortunately requires that we indirectly waste a lot of primary energy sources like kerosene, gasoline along with plenty of grey energy for all kind of infrastructure applied in order to get us to that perfect beach on the other side of the world - unless we happen to live there, which we don’t.
Of course, the ecological footprint on its own is just one of the three aspects, besides social and economic, for the concept of sustainability. While we face the challenges of global warming, diminishing energy, land, water and biomass resources in opposition to growth of population and its correlated consumption and waste production, we should not forget the positive aspects of our presence on beloved Mother Earth: In order for a sustainable world to be worth living in, everybody should have the right to access and enjoy the countless beauties of the small and the big wonders of nature and humanity.
It is a question of focusing on what we do and valuing what we learn and experience. We need a big cultural shift. It’s about opting for more immaterialist sources of fulfilment and quality goods instead of high-volume, materialistic pleasure and throw-away mentality. Living with humble happiness based on knowledge and wisdom needs to become sexy enough to engage a bigger wave of individuals wanting to practise a truly sustainable lifestyle. Why not enjoy more spiritual activities such as life music, dance, or yoga?
The footprint method is great to make us become aware of the grade of our “humbleness”. It’s as simple as that: How can others enjoy their right to be happy if we use up their resources? How long will the illiterate ones take to become aware of their right and start the fight?
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Now, can I truly feel satisfied about our 2bumbleB adventure? I believe yes, regarding the current circumstances on how the world turns. Anh-Dao and I did what we could to assume our responsibility and minimize any negative social and ecological impacts, while we consciously enjoyed, shared and contributed to the richness of life. Nevertheless, we are aware of our carbon footprint. And we want to take action.
Throughout the one-year long journey, we’ve emitted more or less 20 tons of CO2. Two third accounted for air transport, the rest for bus, car, daily gas and electricity needs. We’ve studied the pros and cons of the highly controversial carbon offset business, and after visiting the inspiring Royal Botanical Garden in Melbourne, we decided to support the Australian organisation Greenfleet for compensating the emissions in our 2bumbleB Project. We did not include the indirect emissions of any infrastructure involved and food supplied (grey energy), and neither our breathing, which we regard as the most basic human right, even more elementary than drinking water.
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The 75 trees planted on our behalf by voluntary communities in the Australian Outback will take more than 30 years to absorb the CO2 we’ve produced this year. We know that there are other offset mechanisms that offer faster compensation, like bio-fuel reactors and wind farms. We prefer the trees and leave the investment in renewable energy plants to the companies. They need to do their bit also!
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Of course I would welcome your comments and am open to learn from the debate with your opinions in order to improve for the future (make comments by clicking on the comment link at the end of this post).
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If you are interested in these subjects, I would like to recommend following resources:
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Where we can calculate our ecological footprint and get hints on how to minimize it:
Earthday
This evaluation questions your individual behaviour on issues of food, shelter, mobility and goods and then compares them to the average behaviour and footprint of a region. I like this site quite much because it compares all different regions of the world using the same set of questions, but respecting the local conditions. What shocked me most was the high results due to a fixed position for the regions communal services which can only over the long run be influenced by an individual.
Centre for Integrated Sustainability Analysis (ISA), University of Sydney
Instead of asking for behaviours, the questions here are regarding the structure of expenses over a period of one year, based on the principle that there is a linear dependency between cost and pollution. Unfortunately, the parameters of the model only respect the conditions for average Australia. The model itself however could be a very useful simple tool for any region, since it is focused on monetary expenses and would be easily integratable into the traditional accounting practises.
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Where we can calculate our carbon emissions and make donations for the development of community-acknowledged, locally-organised clean energy production:
Greenfleet
Since 1997, Greenfleet has planted almost three million trees on behalf of Australian motorists and businesses. These trees will form permanent forests and will create an investment in rural Australia for future generations. Science shows that 17 mixed species trees will not only absorb an average car's greenhouse emissions during one year, but will also help to tackle salinity, improve water quality and provide essential habitat for native species. Believing that these benefits are accepted and supported by the local communities, planting trees for carbon sink via this organisation can be an effective action as long as there are available grounds for plantation. Of course we are conscious that the absorption of CO2 will take long time and that this is only an intermediate solution to the Climate Change problem which has to be addressed by completely changing our behavioural patterns on energy consumption and optimising the efficiency of appliances!
Myclimate
As the initiator of a voluntary compensation program for air traffic, Myclimate has played an important role model internationally and paved the way to the Gold standard, a premium quality carbon credit. This label not only respects the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), but is also controlled by the WWF and acknowledged by 49 other renowned NGOs, to ensure that emission reductions are verified, additional and consistent with sustainable development. The customers can decide where they want to direct their compensation, either into projects in Europe or in the developing countries. The Swiss Institute of Technology spin-off organisation remains number one reference worldwide for voluntary CO2-compensation, and their explanations on the emissions of greenhouse gases of airplanes are exemplary. Between 2002 and 2006, I personally compensated over 60’000 flight kilometres through this Not-For-Profit Organisation.
Co2balance
This is a convincing site to motivate you to do serious carbon-offsetting, with great background information.
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Critical debate on the carbon-offset trade:
Carbon Trade Watch reporting on the myth of Carbon neutrality
“Carbon offsets are the modern day indulgences, sold to an increasingly carbon conscious public to absolve their climate sins. Scratch the surface, however, and a disturbing picture emerges, where creative accountancy and elaborate shell games cover up the impossibility of verifying genuine climate change benefits, and where communities in the south often have little choice as offset projects are inflicted on them.
This report argues that offsets place disproportionate emphasis on individual lifestyles and carbon footprints, distracting attention from the wider, systemic changes and collective political action that needs to be taken to tackle climate change. Promoting more effective and powerful approaches involves moving away from the marketing gimmicks, celebrity endorsement, technological quick fixes, and the North/South exploitation that the carbon offset industry embodies.”
