I’ve never owned a car. My grandparents bought a Dodge Daytona when I first started driving and then we acquired the Z just before I graduated (mine did not include a hairy bassist). Both were hatchbacks, but clearly the Z was much cooler.

After graduating from high school I gave up cars pretty much for good. In college I preferred to walk, take the bus or ride with a friend. Now that I’m back in my college town, having spent most of the last year traveling (I fly monthly…sometimes twice a month, and we’ll get to that next) I have access to a free bus system that gets me wherever I want to go. It may not be much, but I do want to offset the fact that I spend a lot of time polluting in other ways.

Pretty Logos Are Only Half the Battle

Most of the time, when I check out from Expedia, I ignore the ads that attempt to get me to buy vacation packages. Last month, the checkout options gave me pause when I saw the TerraPass. That may be because they had the best logo (not hard to do), but whatever.

So I go to their site to see if I want to blow an extra hundred bucks on a pass. Turns out TerraPass may have a good designer, but may need to hire some new User Ex people. I can’t figure it out. It seems altruistic, but I don’t get a clear indication of how this money will go towards greening the future. It may be about trust. The site seems neither secure nor official. It’s vital that any site that wants you to give money to an elusive idea or cause be clear on what direct impact that money will have.

It’s Inconvenient, but We Have to Do The Work

Perhaps it’s up to the younger generation to explain to us what we can be or are supposed to be doing. I heard the “truth” when Al Gore told it. But I definitely didn’t get a clear picture of what to do about the state we’re in. I remember in school getting the “care for the environment” class. It went something like: put in better shower heads, put a brick in the toilet to conserve water, turn off the water while brushing teeth. I wonder what kids are being told now.

What are students and children being taught? And what should we learn that they’re learning now? If I could go back and do elementary school again, I bet I’d pick up more than a few things. Because, when it boils down to it, it’s not about paying cash to put a pretty band-aid on what we’ve done. It’s about preventing it in the future…

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This post was written for Blog Action Day. If you haven’t yet visited the site, get involved. October 15, 2007. Do it for the environment. Not like you do anything else for it…

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