After Earth Day…

This year, Earth Day has come and gone without much being said about the sad state of our planet’s health, the event being largely eclipsed by the war in Ukraine and overarching concerns about the availability of fossil fuels to maintain our daily level of comfort.

That’s when I ask myself the question: “What’s been my contribution this year to my home planet?” Not much, I confess. I ordered an electric car but its delivery date is slipping on weekly basis, we didn’t drive much this year, haven’t flown anywhere yet, and continue to lead a modest and frugal life. 

On that very day I spread over my veggie garden what little compost remaining of a full, large barrel accumulated over a year and this was it. As a household, we still have a long way to go before becoming totally carbon-neutral or reaching “net zero”, the new buzzword that means an even greater commitment to decarbonization and climate action, that doesn’t rely on just “offsetting”. 

We heat our place with natural gas, which in the cold winter climate we live in, is hard to replace by heat pumps or geothermal system. Well, we’ll see how we change that, but in the meantime, we’re committed to do what we can and, in the great scheme of things, every action even small counts...