I pulled a sweater out of my dresser this morning, hoping to fend off the nip in the air during my morning walk with my dog, Pluto. As we strolled through the neighborhood, I noticed a light coating of frost in the yards. Winter is on its way. Shiver.
Pluto didn’t express any interest in wearing a sweater; he seems oblivious to cold temperatures. His interests lie elsewhere.
We could easily have done things differently. Pluto and I could have hopped in my car, and driven through the neighborhood. We would have been a lot warmer, snuggled in a cozy car with the heater blasting. But we took a walk instead, for a couple of reasons.
For one thing, Pluto does things during our walk that simply can’t happen inside an automobile.
And then, there’s my “Net-Zero” Pledge.
Yes, I know. The “Net-Zero” Pledge could very well be simply a passing fashion — the latest craze, the current sensation — and you might be laughing at my naiveté.
On the other hand, the continued existence of life on earth might be simply a passing fashion.
I see where Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the United Nations General Assembly and called for a green revolution, just minutes after US President Donald Trump blasted Beijing for “rampant pollution”. Xi reiterated China’s goal of achieving a peak in carbon dioxide emissions before 2030, and then shocked the assembled world leaders by announcing that China would effectively balance out its carbon emissions, with measures to offset them, before 2060. Pretty ambitious, I would say, considering that the US has managed to relocate 90% of our worst-polluting industries to China over the past couple of decades.
I understand this was the first time the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide had pledged to end its net contribution to climate change. Whether 2060 is a reasonable timeline, we will have to wait and see.
But Pluto and I are happy to make our own small contribution, by walking through the neighborhood with a sweater on, instead of driving in a car. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” (But of course, our morning walk usually consists of a only few residential blocks, especially if it’s cold out.)
The word “net” is critical to all of us who are making our “Net-Zero” Pledge, because it allows us to hedge our bets, so to speak. We can still feel righteous about pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, so long as we’re ‘balancing out’ our emissions by doing something that might be drawing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
For myself, I am reckoning my front lawn against my various types of carbon pollution. Grass is a carbon sink, they tell me, because the grass inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen. To make sure I’m getting the most ‘credit’ for my lawn, I’ve stopped mowing it. This practice has made me unpopular with my neighbors, but I’m not sure. I would feel better if one of them would come over and bawl me out, so I could explain my “Net-Zero” Pledge and while I might be ruining the property values in the neighborhood, I’m helping save the world. But so far, no one has said anything.
Nor have they said anything about my roof.
I read somewhere that one way to save energy is to light the interior of your house with sunlight rather than electricity, so I have purposely not fixed that big hole in the roof. Which means I had to rearrange the furniture in the living room, to keep it from getting too terribly wet when it rains. But it’s the least I can do for the planet. (The snow is much easier to deal with; I just keep a snow shovel behind the couch.)
And I got rid of the air conditioner. If it gets too hot, I just sit for a while in the damp recliner chair and cool off.
I am also counting my refusal to fly on commercial airplanes towards my “Net-Zero.” Not that I have any reason to fly anywhere, but when you are calculating your total carbon footprint, and trying to help save the world, every possible savings needs to be taken into account.
I suspect President Xi Jinping will need to take some additional steps, beyond letting the lawns in China grow wild, if he plans to get to ‘Net-Zero” by 2060. I see where the Chinese economy generated almost 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide last year.
I noticed, after our walk this morning, that my sweater had been made in China. How exactly do I figure that into my “Net-Zero” calculation?
Maybe Pluto and I will both skip the sweater tomorrow.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.