10 things I am thankful for, 2009 edition

1) Sarah, my best friend.
2) Emery Oliver
3) being able to buy fresh fruit and vegetables whenever I want
4) my job
5) ice cream and a big spoon after a long day
6) electricity and clean water on demand
7) LOST
8) a rodent-free apartment
9) vacations
10) love.

For Christmas this year... Build the Greensburg wind farm!

I have only one thing on my Christmas list this year:

Offsetting all my flights for 2009... a big job!
(All that Catholic guilt is kicking in!)


Here's my company of choice for the offsets:
NativeEnergy is a revered offset program that develops renewable energy projects that benefit Native Americans, family farmers and municipalities. It's main project currently is supporting the construction of the new 12.5MW wind farm in Greensburg, KS. (Built by John Deere Renewables!)

As you might remember, the town of Greensburg was 95% destroyed by an F-5 tornado on May 4, 2007. Being from Kansas, the town holds a special place in my heart. (I even went to a Homecoming dance there once in High School!) The story of Greensburg has been immortalized by a series on the Discovery Channel, a mention in the State of the Union, and a Presidential commencement address at graduation that year...... vastly overshadowing the World's Largest Hand-Dug Well, it's previous claim to fame!

To offset my guilt (not to mention the CO2), I have calculated below all of my flight-miles for 2009. Before the year is over, I will have flown:

Kansas: 592 540 781 760
1108 1108
963 453 781 761
1020 393 781 761

Ethiopia: 3644 3552 3552 3664 313 313
6849 1563 313 313 1563 6849

Other:
1187 1187
2475 2475
2475 2475
761 596 596 761
1108 1363 2475

= 39 flights, (11532 mi short haul x .64 lbs/mi) + (23582 mi medium haul x .44) + (28090 mi long haul x .39)
= 14.36 tons of CO2

That's almost half as much CO2 as the average American emits from all sources in one year... JUST FROM FLIGHTS! Not good. But, I figure by living in New York (New Yorkers emit less than 1/3 as much CO2 as the average American), and keeping a vegetarian diet, I make up for a lot of that.

When you're making your Christmas list this year - consider giving a gift to the planet, too.

To offset now, go to:
http://www.nativeenergy.com/pages/offset_now/473.php

It might be the best Christmas gift you can give in the "Less is More" times we're living in now.