Sailing and Being Green

To start off, I hate the term "carbon footprint" and the politicos that fly around in private jets that coined it. I don't think anyone can  accurately measure each individuals impact on carbon monoxide in the atmosphere.
That being said, there is no doubt that there are changes in the weather on our planet. Are we causing the changes?, I don't think we really know. We have about two hundred years of data to look at on a planet that's hundreds of million years old. That doesn't mean that we should do nothing, we are the stewards of this world and its the only home we have, so if we can make a difference, I think we should.

Sailing involves travel by wind power; you cant get any cleaner than that. People who live aboard also live frugally and are usually outside of the consumer driven lifestyle that has created much of the pollution in our world. Although my reasons for transitioning to the cruising lifestyle has less to do with the planet, and more to do with our personal desires, it is none the less, a large reduction in the co2 that we produce today. Sailing will provide a inexpensive means of travel for Martina and I to visit the places we want to see, while compelling us, through reduced space, to live with less.

Many people think electric is the answer, but I disagree. If every car in America was electric, we would destroy the environment through mining for cooper, lead, lithium, and all the other heavy metals used in battery production. We would have to build many more coal powered electrical plants to provide the charging power and in the end would create more carbon monoxide emissions than we already have. Not to mention all of the hazardous waste created in battery disposal.

Our politicians need to stop pandering to special interest groups and corporate donors and establish real and effective policies to find a viable alternative to fossil fuels. We need to search for something different and not just try to make the old better. All the hybrids and electric cars will never be able to effectively replaced what we currently have. Commerce moves on trucks, trains, and ships, all using diesel fuel, and are some of the major producers of soot and pollution. There is no electric alternative to those, so we need something new.

Everyone seems to be on one side or the other on global warming or climate change or whatever else you want to call it. They yell, and show data, and preach gloom and doom, but no one is offering a real solution. We have become a nation that is so consumed with hate for someone else's opinion, that we loose sight of the issue that's in front of our noses? I say its time to return to the America that found solutions for problems, put aside our differences and disagreements and work together for the common good.

I am just a common person who enjoys sailing, but I see the benefit of living a cleaner life and plan to live it in retirement. All I ask of anyone is consider the world you leave your children and grandchildren; because if we don't do anything, we might leave them a dying planet.