Apparently Earth Day was yesterday, so I'm a day late and 13.5 acres short. Update: Ah ha! I'm early, it's
April 22.
Faded in and out of some serious nappage while
FSTV ran a program on ecological footprints. Keep an eye on
Footprint Network for a footprint calculator for the US, right now they only have one for Australia.
Meanwhile I did the
Earth Day Footprint Quiz.
By looking at how you live it tells you roughly how much acreage it takes to support your specific lifestyle. For me, that is 18 acres. In a world with only enough footprint room for 4.5 acres per person, it would take 3.9 earths to support our world population if they all lived like me. So I feel bad.
But, it takes 24 acres to support the average American, and I'd like to think I could knock a few acres off since I support a kid inside my lifestyle. And it least I'm not a shopping center, it takes acreage equal 1600 shopping centers to support that beast. Wow.
Anyway, think local. World food prices are shooting up right now and transportation costs are one important ingredient. Support your local farmer or farmers market. Unless yours, like mine, sells produce shipped from California :p
OK, so I've been away awhile but I have excuses, I ran for the state legislature, got divorced, broke my ankle...
"Wait, wait! Dude, you ran for office?"
Hey, I don't call this "all politics is local" for nada. Yes, I ran for the Texas lege as a Libertarian candidate. To be more accurate I was one of four Lib candidates who filed for the same slot. Since I only filed because at the 11th hour the slot appeared to be open, I quickly withdrew (well, I waited a bit) to let the other 3 slug it out.
Withdrawing also allowed me to leave the Lib Party fold briefly and do something I hadn't done since 1984 or so: vote in a GOP primary. Then I went back that night and was selected as a delegate to the county convention (along with everyone else who showed up) where I was supposed to go and put forth Ron Paul approved platform requests. See, I am part of the Ron Paul Revolution: we're gonna starve the Beast and restore the 9th and 10th Amendments. I'm not on board with all the RP positions (abortion, gold standard, for two) but his number one goal is to shrink the fed govt and restore some state power, Founder style. Good on him for that, as the late Progressive Molly Ivins would say.
I'd like to think the strain of my campaign did not cost me my marriage. And I'd be right. The ankle, however...
