2009

: In the purely personal sphere of action I have been working on minimizing and offsetting my personal/familial carbon footprint. We are lucky enough here to have relatively clean (Hydroquebec) electricity, so this summer we transitioned to no longer owning any ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles. We’re planning to transition off of natural gas heating in favour of electric heat, and are meanwhile cutting down on our gas usage by using as much supplemental electric heat as practical. I was an enthusiastic if moderate carnivore, and a big consumer of dairy, for most of my life, but have been transitioning away in the last years, and especially months. Most recently, at first reluctantly, I have decided to keep mammalian meat only for special, rare occasions; greatly reduce my consumption of chicken/dairy/eggs/fish; and depend on vegetable sources for the bulk of my nutritional needs. (Even fish, I’ve found, is now a dubious choice, between monstrous carnage of ocean populations, and surprisingly high carbon footprints of aquaculture. Sigh…). I bought some carbon offsets, too, to be on the safe side, supporting things like solar cooking in Africa and planting trees in tropical forests.

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