Sunday 13 December 2009

More On That Story After This Short Break

It has been a long, busy, fairly insubstantial year and so I've decided to take a break. Yesterday I checked out of the country and won't be back until 6th January 2010. Fabulous...

No more shivering mornings, cycling to work. No more irritating M&S adverts. No more endless festive 70s hits. No more gruesome Kirstie Allsop and her Homemade bloody Christmas.

Journeying abroad does, however, inevitably mean that my otherwise minuscule carbon footprint for travel (I cycle almost everywhere) is about to take a serious hit, as my journey to see my lil sis Zee involves a round-trip of 16,803 miles and the consumption of 5.59 tonnes of carbon - and according to the government's carbon calculator, that far exceeds the 4.23 tonnes I have used for everything else for the entire year.

I am offsetting, of course, at the cost of around £70 to PURE / The Clean Planet Trust, but I have a sneaky suspicion this is something of a cop-out.

Anyway, the purpose of getting away was to catch up with Zee and to really, really relax in warmer, more interesting surroundings. This should theoretically involve a temporary hiatus in daily blogging for the next three weeks and steering well clear of Twitter - although as I'm taking my laptop, I have a feeling that like so many other things I do, this is more of an aspiration. Suddenly having the time to follow the news and write whenever I like may have the opposite effect We shall see.

Until 2010 then. Normal service will resume in the New Year.

3 Comments:

HarpyMarx said...

Have a wonderful break. I so envy you. Oh, and shocking btw you took your laptop!!!!!!

asad said...

Kev

You do realise that offsetting is a con and that the CDM mechanism under which these offsets take place are subject to fierce criticism by grassroots organisations in the South, If you want to offset you are better making the donation to a climate justice organisation in the South fighting these projects.

Asad

Kevin said...

Asad, yes I know. Offsetting is a complete copout. This is the reason why I decided on a bolder approach when I returned home in January.

See "New Year's Resolution - No More Flights" - http://www.blowe.org.uk/2010/01/new-years-resolution-no-more-flights.html

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