As inhabitants of this planet, most of us are becoming increasingly aware of the consequences of climate change. For many of us that awareness comes with a sense of despair. What can we possibly do as individuals that will make the situation better?
Fortunately there are very simple actions we can take that will help, and it turns out that taking action also helps with the despair. We can ride our bike once in a while instead of jumping in the car. We can adjust the temperature on the thermostat. We can plant flowers that feed the birds and the bees and the butterflies.
We can also purchase carbon offsets, which turns out to be really easy.
And every time we do something, and then also find a way to talk about it, we make it more likely that others will join us in that behavior. The tide is turning. We just have to support each other’s instinct to do the right thing.
Unfortunately one of the small minority of people who just don’t get it happens to be the 45 th President of the United States. His relentless, determined rollback of environmental protections is endangering the future of life on the planet in ways no one else has the power to perpetrate.
But, again, we’re not helpless. We can choose to shout into the wind, to rail against our fate, or together we can do something simple to offset his damage. We can literally offset Trump. We invite you to join us (for as little as $10.00) in pooling our money to frustrate his attempts to make our lives miserable. Interested? Check it out.
Now, about the President. We have come up with some numbers on his personal (as opposed to political) impact to help us set a goal for our offsets. Unlike our friends at Cool Effect, our carbon offset numbers bear no resemblance to science. The real offsets you will choose for yourself when you go to the Cool Effects web site. But here is a short list of high crimes and misdemeanors committed by 45 against the environment. We’ll start with the easiest to offset and see how far we get down the list.
We Have a Beef with Trump
Did you know that the diet of a high meat-eating man produces twice the CO2 equivalent as a vegetarian woman? If you needed another reason we should elect a woman President, there you go. And according to National Geographic, producing beef uses 20 times the land and emits 20 times the emissions as growing beans, per gram of protein. Trump Steaks sold so poorly on QVC that they suspended sales after two months, so he probably did not do too much damage as a purveyor of meat. But Trump does love his beef. Marie Claire Magazine estimates he may eat enough beef to contribute 7 kilograms of CO2 a day. We’re not sure where they got that number, but we’re going with it.
Offset: 7 kilograms x 365 days x four (very long) years x $7.85 = $80.23
($7.85 is Cool Effect’s estimate to offset 1 tonne of carbon in the atmosphere)
How many houses do you need?
A 2015 report by the Alliance for a Greater New York found that Trump Tower uses more energy per square foot than 93% of the city’s other large residential buildings. We’re shocked. Shocked.
The World Energy Council estimates that the average American household uses 11,700 kWh/year. It depends on what was used to produce that energy how much CO2 is produced by your home. Solar essentially produces none and coal would be about 2 pounds. Broadly speaking, one kWh is one pound of CO2 released into the atmosphere. Put up some solar panels and we can get that average down! The average home size in the US is 1,900 square feet. Trump’s many properties including Mar-a-Lago, his three-story penthouse in Trump Tower, and several other large and luxurious properties totals about 156,000 square feet. 82 times the typical US citizen. Electricity in all that real estate comes with a big carbon footprint.
Offset: 11,700 kWh/ year x 82 = 480 tons x $7.85 = $3,768
Debacle at Doonbeg
While Trump fights for fossil fuels and denies climate change, his minions have actually requested from the Irish government permission to build a seawall to protect Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Doonbeg, Ireland from the impacts of rising sea levels and more powerful storms. (What is it with Trump and walls!?) The wall might protect his property, but it will also create erosion on other beaches. You can’t really hold back the ocean. And the important question is what will it do to the local surfing community?!? They want 900 meters of steel pile wall. That’s about 2,250 tons of steel. Making a ton of steel creates two tons of CO2 (at least that’s what we read in MIT News). Meaning we need to…
Offset: 4,500 tons of carbon x $7.85 = $35,385.
Presidential Fun in the Sun
Trump’s golf vacations have cost taxpayers over $100 million – much of that going into his pocket since he stays at his own properties. Now that 45 has moved to Florida to avoid paying state income taxes (does he pay taxes at all?), he may spend even more time at Mar-a-Lago. You may be aware that air travel is a major contributor of green house gases. Trump takes a Boeing 747 called Air Force One. If you took a flight from DC to West Palm, Cool Effect would only ask you for $6.12 to offset your travel. But you share the ride with a couple hundred other people. A 747 is capable of carrying over 500 people in commercial use. We’re not sure how many journalists and sycophants go with him on these flights, but presumably they were not planning on going to Florida just because. We’re charging him for the whole flight. On the other hand, we’re not counting the cargo planes that go with him to take his armored cars or the fuel the Coast Guard burns to get their boats up to Palm Beach to set a protective perimeter.
Offset: 1,700 round trip miles in a 747 = $3,060.
Total goal for offsetting Trump and saving the planet: $42,293.23! So there you have it. Can we raise $42,293.23? Let’s try.