Thursday, April 22, 2010

S for 'Save the World'

The other day, a friend of mine who is an avid trekker, a nature enthusiast, and a keen wildlife photographer was telling me about the time he hiked to the top of a mountain, and camped out for the night, just so he could witness the sunrise from what he described as the Top of the World. I was trying to visualise the sun pushing its way through a thick carpet of clouds, when he said, "Nature has given me more joy than anything else. I can't imagine what I would have missed out on if my uncle hadn't tackled my fear when I was in my teens."
"Why, what happened?", the writer and people watcher in me piped up.
"When I was very young", he told me. "I was scared of the Wild. I never went anywhere near Nature because I was worried about the unknown dangers that lurked there. When I told my uncle my fears, he said 'Why should you be afraid of the Wild? The wild should be afraid of you.' It took me a few weeks before I understood what he meant, but after that, Nature became my best friend."

Whether we clear forests to make land for cultivation, or kill tigers because we think they make good aphrodisiacs, or drive a monster car to a place we could easily walk to, we are the ones who harm Nature. In a few decades, we have succeeded in undoing the balance that took Millennia to create. And we have only ourselves to blame if our winters are too cold, our summers too hot, and our rains not enough to meet our need for water.

On Earth Day, let us take a couple of minutes to think about something I first came across when I was in my teens and haven't forgotten since, "Remember, we did not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrowed it from our children."


And did you know that a blog leaves a carbon footprint too?

These details are taken from the 'My Blog is Carbon Neutral" site.

How much carbon dioxide does your blog create?

According to a study by Alexander Wissner-Gross, PhD, physicist at Harvard University and environmental activist, an average website causes about 0.02g (0,0008oz.) of carbon dioxide for each visit. Assuming an average blog gets 15,000 visits a month, it has yearly carbon dioxide emissions of 3,6kg (8lb.). This can mainly be tracked back to the immense energy usage from (mainframe) computers, servers, and their cooling systems.

As demonstrated in the above calculation, the atmosphere can be relieved by an average of 5kg (11lb.) carbon dioxide every year by planting one tree. An average blog causes 3.6kg (8lb.) of carbon dioxide emissions. Consequently, a tree neutralises the carbon dioxide emissions of a blog. Since a tree lives for an average of 50 years, carbon dioxide emissions of your blog can be completely neutralised for this time period.

Here’s how you can help
Just write a short blog post about the programme “My blog is carbon neutral” and include a buttons on your site (ideally in the sidebar). Send the link of your blog to CO2-neutral@kaufda.de and they plant a tree for you, neutralising the carbon dioxide emissions of your blog. The trees will be planted in the spring of 2010 by the Arbor Day Foundation.

Happy Earth Day!
Help Save the World!

17 comments:

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

A most scienfiic blog, very interesting to read,
I didn't know much about what you wrote about before and it certainly opened my eyes.

Have a nice day.
Yvonne.

Mason Canyon said...

This is a great project for Earth Day.

Mason
Thoughts in Progress

Southpaw said...

Happy Earth Day! Great post to honor the day.

JournoMich said...

"'Remember, we did not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrowed it from our children.'"
I love that.

Thank you for honoring the earth today!

Michele
SouthernCityMysteries

JournoMich said...

BTW- you have inspired me to do a second post today, this one about the Earth!

Michele

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Earth Day blessings to you!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the blog. I never considered the carbon footprint I was leaving. We do though turn off our computers when not in use, so we're contributing.

Stephen Tremp

Lisa said...

Those stats are pretty scary! As for the killing of animals and razing of rain forests, I just don't get it.
Nature is more and more beautiful to me everyday!I'm so thankful for the gift that God has given us in this respect and would like to do my part in helping conserve it. Thanks for a wonderful post Rayna!

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Hi , I would like to partake in planting a tree but my pc knowledge is very limited, I can just about put an award on the side ofmy blog, all techincal stuff is done by my son who is away from his home at the moment on a course for his work.
Yvonne.

Raquel Byrnes said...

Great Earth Day project! I'll check it out.

Ella said...

I love the earth; great post! We celebrate Earth Day, by picking up our neighborhood. The kids and I take a large garbage bag and walk around picking up papers, cans, plastic, etc. Sometimes we plant a tree!

I will have to check out your link

Jackee said...

Beautiful post! I never feel more myself than I do out deep in the wilds of somewhere. It's a spiritual ritual for me in a very real sense.

And I absolutely love that quote.

I came over from Michele's blog Southern Mysteries and am so glad I've found your site--it's gorgeous!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

It's on my list, although not sure what letter just yet!

dipali said...

Great post!

Natasha said...

@ Yvonne – we never even think of something like that, do we?

@ Mason – honouring Mother Earth was worth sacrificing my original S word – Serendipity – for

@ Southpaw – thank you, and you

@ Michele – I got the idea from you. Thank you. And I also noticed you traced the origin of the quotation

@ Debra – thank you, and you

@ Stephen – if nothing else, by doing blog tours instead of book tours, we are leaving a smaller carbon footprint!

@ Lisa – they are, aren’t they? And most of the degradation is so pointless.

@ Yvonne – actually, it is easy. You just download the picture and post it only your blog (and also pit it on your side bar). Then you send them a mail saying you have done so, and they plant a tree on behalf of you. Or you could ask your son to do it for you.

@ Raquel – I noticed you have done it too!

@ Ellie – you are doing more for the Earth than most people

@ Jackee – Nature is almost therapeutic, isn’t it? And thanks for the visit.

@ Alex – or it could be outside the letter challenge

@ dipali – thank you.

Haddock said...

Wish all would understand the importance of trees.

Natasha said...

@ Haddock - quite agree.

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