The next get rich quick smarties

The whole sky-is-falling mantra of Al Gore in relation to global warming is taking a turn for the landfills, thankfully. There are plenty of people still worried about climate change and how humans affect it. Whether the climate change is anthropomorphic or a God-ordained event, I am going to help do something about it! For only $20, that you send to me (I do accept PayPal), I will plant a tree in your name and you will feel good knowing that your horrible carbon dioxide emissions have been offset! Now, I will not write your name on the tree, attach a plaque with your name to the tree, put a plaque with your name in the ground, or do anything except speak your name as the last shovelful of dirt gets placed around the trunk. To do any of the former would be to harm that beautiful arbor.

So remember, send your money to me! You cannot do this on your own. In our new society where the bigger man has to tell you what you are doing wrong, make you feel guilty for it, then tell what is good for you, it would just be better if you sent your money to me and I planted the tree for you. You wouldn’t do it right in the first place. Don’t even think about planting the tree yourself and then sending that $20 to an organization that provides fresh water or medicine to the desperate people in Africa or Haiti.

**********
Tongue firmly in cheek for that one. You can all rest assured that I haven’t jumped off the deep end. I did receive an email today that is very similar.

Hi Vicki,

just stumbled over your blog https://notsosahm.wordpress.com – nice work!

I am part of a young team in Germany, working for an initiative called “Make it green!”. Our goal is to contribute our part in reducing the carbon footprint by raising awareness of the severe environmental damage caused by carbon emissions . One of our activities is to raise awareness of the carbon emissions resulting from the use of the internet – specifically of blogs. A blog with 15,000 visits a month has a yearly carbon dioxide emissions of 8lb. To neutralise these emissions we have created “My blog is carbon neutral” buttons so bloggers can demonstrate that they care about the environment and the carbon footprint of their blogs. We present them a small but nontheless worthy solution to contribute to environmental issues. Our idea is to show possibilities to make a contribution to protect the environment.

To find out how you can participate please visit http://www.iwillnotprovidetheiraddresshereandgivethemfreepress.com

And how do we actually neutralize your blog’s carbon footprint? We are planting trees in cooperation with the Arbor Day Foundation in Plumas National Forest in Northern California for our project to neutralize the carbon footprint of blogs. Thousands of wildfires burned down many national forests over the past ten years and 88.000 acres of Plumas’ were destroyed by two fires in 2007. To help replanting we need the support of bloggers all over the world! For every participating blog we plant a tree. One blog – one tree.

Why do we do this? We are a German based company called XXXXXX, which provides advertisement brochures of local stores online to help consumers search for specific products and find good deals in their neighborhood. This reduces the amount of brochures printed and so the project helps the environment by reducing unnecessary paper in mailboxes. An American on average receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year. This has the same carbon footprint as burning six gallons of gasoline.

We’d be glad to plant your tree! Help us and show that you care! Every tree counts!

Best wishes from Germany,

Christin

“Make it green!”-team

Wow, I’m flattered that they assume my blog gets anywhere near 15,000 hits per month. I am not flattered though that they take me for a fool. I do not believe in carbon offsets or anything else to be anything but a money-making scheme for the rich people who are pushing harmful climate change down our throats so they can become richer (I’m looking at you, Al Gore and the Cap & Trade insanity). I have nothing wrong with capitalism. I do have an issue with fraudulent people trying to pull one over on people who care about their environment.

The web address that I link to up there is an article that actually says “[a]s more Americans try to offset their carbon emissions”. Where is their statistical data that proves this? “More Americans” is a subjective term that is used to portray an image of thousands upon thousands of people involved in this. I don’t buy any of it and I’m not buying into it.

I care about my environment and I’m not going out of my way to destroy it. I take steps to conserve it (as opposed to preserving it). I recycle. A lot. Nearly a full lawn trashcan is filled with my household’s recycling every Wednesday morning (Arlington, VA recycles up to a #7!). But I’m not going to give up my Durango. It’s great for getting lots of people around in one vehicle. I do my laundry on one day to reduce the amount of loads I run. I use soap that doesn’t have phosphates or whatever seeps into the ground water. I use every part of the animal after Du kills it and brings it home (just seeing if you’re paying attention). I refuse to feel guilty about blogging and am not going to be made to feel responsible for OTHER people accessing information on the internet, of which my blog is rarely part of that.

Individually, I am taking steps to conserve my environment and yet still live. And I am going to trust you that you are doing the same without having to pay someone else to get rich off of us.

By the way, when are we going to start fining the cows and termites for farting? Their carbon monoxide emissions are downright stinky.

Oh, and I see emails like the one I received as being the next form of “Hello, my name is Roger Fillmore, Esq., based out of Nigeria. I need to send a billion dollars to your account and you can keep most of it”.