Environmental Footprint, Global Warming, and My Rationalizations

You know, pretty much everyone we've told about our trip has been very positive and excited about it, but I feel the need to share my thoughts about taking to the road in these times of oil wars and global warming and environmental degradation that is a direct result of the internal combustion engine and our highly consumptive lifestyles...

I prefer to practice what I preach, and I prefer not to preach too much, but just to do what I believe is right. But perfection is unattainable, and frailty is human...

We recycle everything that we can, but we don't reuse as much as we should. We try not to buy thngs we don't need, but end up with too much stuff anyway. We prefer to live where we don't have to commute to work daily - Devin glides to work on his Segway and rarely drives, and for years, I lived only a few blocks from my work and I walked... but we have a big SUV now. What's up with that? We don't drive it much, but I got rid of my old Subaru because we didn't need two cars, and so now when we do drive, we drive the Toyota Sequoia. But we use it for 4wd camping excursions - we've had some wonderful trips into remote places with it. At least we don't just have a big SUV for status, like a lot of people in LA. Well, that's my rationalization, anyway.

I still like what Jeff Goldblum's character in The Big Chill said about rationalizations:

Michael: I don't know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations. They're more important than sex.
Sam Weber: Ah, come on. Nothing's more important than sex.
Michael: Oh yeah? Ever gone a week without a rationalization?

Too true, too true.

So, on with the rationalization about our environmental footprint in the MoHo:

• I ~think~ we will likely have a smaller environmental footprint living in the MoHo than most people do living in a "stick house." We will be self-contained and "off the grid" - we are getting full solar installed (more on that in a later post), so we don't have to hook up.
• And when you have a limited supply of water and waste holding capacity, you conserve even more than normal - we have a 6 gallon water heater - you can bet we'll take short showers! We will have 75 gallons of fresh water - we hope to spend fairly long periods out "dry camping" so we have to learn to make that last.
• Our waste water tanks won't hold too much, so we have to be careful with how much (and what - don't want to kill off the good bacteria that digest our waste) goes down the drains.
• Even with solar panels, we won't want to waste electricity, because we'll be living off 4 batteries - if we discharge them all in one day, we'll have to wait till they are recharged the next day to use them. So we will be turning off lights, only using appliances as needed for short periods, trying to heat and cool as naturally as possible with the sun, windows, vents and our choices of clothing.

What about driving - what kind of MPG does that big ole MoHo get? Well, you probably guessed it, it's pretty bad. Probably no better than 10MPG (ironically, about what some Hummers get - ha). But, considering it's our house... not too shabby, really. Ideally, I would have liked to get a diesel so we could run bio-diesel and be a Veggie-Mobile! But that's not very realistic for now (for US) for a couple reasons:

• Diesel motorhomes are WAY more expensive than gas burners. We got a great deal on ours, and it is what we can afford.
• Bio-diesel is not yet widely commercially available, though we've seen it at the Exxon in Durango, Colorado... that's about it. And the stuff that IS commercially available is only a small percent bio-diesel and the rest regular petro-diesel. Having to find places to get used veggie oil, strain and treat it for use on the road isn't really practical for us at this time. If we lived in one place, could get regular access to good bio-diesel, or even set up a system to make our own, that would be so cool. But for now that is just a dream - though the thought of driving a veggie-moho goes nicely with the paisley and peace sign paint scheme I was considering! I would paint vines and flowers on the outside and have 'powered by veggies!" written on it somewhere proudly... :-)

So we have a gas beast that gets 8-10 MPG. So we won't be driving it very much - even spending a year travelling, we certainly don't want to spend most of that year driving! We won't drive every day, in fact, the idea is to drive relatively short distances to the next place we set up housekeeping, and stay there a week or two before moving on.

So now you can see why I think we may just have a smaller ecological footprint that someone living in a stick house and driving to work every day. Unless they have a Prius...

When we come in for a landing after our trip, I promise we will do everything we can to make up for it! Get a hybrid car, find a place to live where we can walk or glide to work, get solar panels on our house, and continue the good habits of conservation from motorhome life!

Maybe we'll buy some carbon offsets, too.