Monday, February 2, 2009

What's the environmental impact of this post?

Humans tend to focus on 8-foot gorillas, sometimes ignoring or downplaying smaller threats. It's probably a holdover from our caveman days (if you believe all that Evolution mumbo-jumbo).

When it comes to Earth's inevitable environmental collapse (sorry to be so blunt), the 8-foot gorilla is global warming, our own personal link to which is the much-discussed "carbon footprint".

So, do you walk this Earth with slippers, or do you stomp spotted owls and baby seals with steel-toed size 12's? When thinking about your carbon footprint (assuming you've at least considered it), what comes to mind? Your gas consumption? How hot you keep your house in the winter? How many internet searches you do every day?

Wait a minute... what was that last one?

Our every action consumes energy. And while the individual carbon cost of a Google search, blog post, or porn download (yeah, I'm talking to you) may be miniscule... there is a cost. And as Yakota Fritz over at Cycleicious posits, the barrier to these actions is now so low that we're able to perform them on an increasingly vast scale.

What do you think... can the good that comes from billions of networked minds overcome the toll we're exacting on the earth? Or is this just so much entertainment while we wait for the end of days?

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