Let me start by stating that I am part of the problem and that I truly regret my wasteful behavior. I am not looking for excuses. I am not hiding from my bad behavior. I just am sorry. And I promise to do better from now on.
When writing this text, I am waiting for the plane which will bring me from Geneva Airport to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. I am busy typing on my laptop while having an expression on my face that may convince the people around me that I am working on something important. I scratch my chin. Nope, still no signs of facial hair. I stare in the distance and scratch my neck for a change. Next, I try to focus on my screen again, yet my eyes are wandering off because they do not like what they see. They do not want to be confronted with the inconvenient truth that is laid out in front of them. A truth that justifies me scratching my head and having serious looks on my face. But also a truth that I need to act upon, and I’d better start doing so soon.
What is actually presented on my screen, you might ask? Well, you would think that it is something impressive, but it is nothing more than an Excel sheet presenting a two-by-four table. For now, I do not really care about the first three columns but the values in the fourth one, namely 646,250 and 6,840,000, really hit me. The first value represents the (estimated) annual CO2 emission of my partner who goes to work by car every day. The second value corresponds to the total (estimated) CO2 emission of the plane trips I booked for the first half year of living in Geneva.
[silence]
[mild panic]
[feeling of shame and guilt]
[hope that my calculations are wrong]
[*********]
I knew that flying is bad, but I did not expect the situation to be this bad. And, I must not forget that my situation is even worse than my calculations indicate. Travelling by car is clearly not good for the environment either, so my comparison is making my behavior look better than it actually is.
By now, you probably know which problem I am a part of, and you may have all the right to criticize me for my wasteful traveling behavior. However, please allow me to better myself. I have many ideas for improving my own behavior which I have already started to put into practice. In addition, I have some ideas to make the world a bit better, and these ideas go beyond my personal situation.
Interested? Just keep reading further.
Okay, we all know that flying is bad for the planet but people will likely continue using this form of transportation, at least for the coming years. Thousands of travelers will thus continue to walk around at airports every day, and I hereby suggest to consider ‘exploiting’ them as source of renewable energy. The thing is, many travelers carry sports clothing in their hand luggage and would be interested in going to the gym while waiting for their flights to start boarding. Now, what if airports would have a gym equipped with spinning bikes that generate energy, which already exist by the way? These gyms would enable them to generate energy which they otherwise would have wasted by staring at their phone screens or by doing important stuff on their laptops.
I know, I am biased, but for me this sounds like a win-win situation.
I realize that the plan is not yet perfect, and there are obviously all kinds of practicalities that need to be sorted out. Fortunately, I have already thought about some of them. For example, I would like to suggest using an online booking system where you can register for time-slots, of course for a competitive price in order to lower the threshold for people to start generating energy instead of wasting it. This price should include the use of an eco-friendly towel, the access to a dressing room where you can take a short (cold water) shower, and the issuance of a biodegradable seal bag for transporting dirty sports clothing.
Still interested? Please feel free to contact me to get (free) advice or to learn more about my views on some other practicalities. Also, feel free to use my idea without my consent, while only for developing it further into a non-profit business. Because we should not forget: we are not doing it (solely) for ourselves when it comes to preserving our precious planet.
analyzed-by-frank.com 