{"id":442,"date":"2008-12-29T15:01:16","date_gmt":"2008-12-29T08:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/wordpress\/?p=442"},"modified":"2011-03-18T19:47:28","modified_gmt":"2011-03-18T19:47:28","slug":"i-want-to-donate-some-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/archives\/442","title":{"rendered":"I want to donate some money."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hippy and treehugger\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I remember people being called when I first joined the Geography program at the University of Victoria<\/a>. I guess that when you are studying about how the planet works or how the environment can affect how we live, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re labeled as some sort of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153alternative\u00e2\u20ac\u009d person (i.e. freak like these mask we made in Bali?). I know the environmental movement has been going on for years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ex. Rachel Carlson<\/a>, but its funny how things have moved so quickly in the past decade. Climate change, global warming, green growth, etc\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 All these key words have somehow made its way to the mainstream and the hippies and treehuggers are now being seen as a legitimate source for solutions\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 albeit at an arms distance. The photo below shows an environmentally sound house made of bamboo at the Green School in Bali<\/a>. There’s also facilities to recycle human waste to produce methane for energy.<\/p>\n

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Now, the biggest thing is for companies to be socially responsible and environmentally aware.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems that only when the economy and the pockets of the wealthy are in jeopardy do we see real action and change happening<\/a>. But as usual, there is a catch. The solutions still seem to be based on keeping our global economy going. We now have corporations \u00e2\u20ac\u0153greening\u00e2\u20ac\u009d their industries and creating \u00e2\u20ac\u0153green\u00e2\u20ac\u009d jobs<\/a>. But aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we missing the point of reducing our environmental impact when its society\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s consumption and production that is the source of the problem? While I believe that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153greening\u00e2\u20ac\u009d our lifestyle is a way to go, the ultimate solution to our long-term environmental problems is to change the way we live and reduce our carbon footprint<\/a>. From making our cities work more efficiently<\/a> to address climate change, reducing our need to consume\/produce, to taking small steps.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guilty, like many people who work for international companies\/organizations, for flying multiple times during the year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c so far, approximately 6 international flights – 4 of them were more than 10 hours, including flying to Dili airport (photo above). And since flying is up there as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t I be practicing what I preach? Knowing that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m adding to the detriment of the environment is half the battle. <\/span>So where do I go from here? I could pay the airlines like Cathay Pacific<\/a>, to offset my footprint… Reducing other areas in my lifestyle (i.e. eating less meat, taking alternative transport, reducing my consumption, etc.) is a start, but I wanted a more direct way of giving back to the environment. I decided to calculate my travel carbon footprint using the calculator from ActionCarbone<\/a>. According to the website, it would take almost 13 Earths to accommodate my traveling and approximately CND$800 to offset my carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

\n

THE OFFER<\/strong><\/p>\n

So now that I know how much it would take to offset my footprint, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m planning on donating this amount to a worthy environmental idea \u00e2\u20ac\u201c for example taking a household product and redesigning it to use renewable energy or a project to plant trees or make green spaces \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or a worthy environmental organization. The donation can be for the full amount or a portion depending on the idea.<\/p>\n

If you have an idea or know of someone doing something innovative for the environment, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to hear about it. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no deadline to my offer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c only that the idea takes into account the following three factors:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. <\/span><\/span>It improves the environment.<\/li>\n
  2. <\/span><\/span>It uses renewable energy.<\/li>\n
  3. It is an idea that anyone can use.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \n

    If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re interested in this offer, just leave a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Hippy and treehugger\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I remember people being called when I first joined the Geography program at the University of Victoria. I guess that when you are studying about how the planet works or how the environment can affect how we live, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re labeled as some sort of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153alternative\u00e2\u20ac\u009d person (i.e. freak like these … Continue reading I want to donate some money.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[11,19,125,34,39,126],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1985,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions\/1985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincentfung.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}