Carbon compromises

I was at a group meeting this week discussing our carbon footprints. We looked at a an on line website where you enter information about your lifestyle and the site calculates your carbon footprint. We looked at several alternative websites and they were of varying degrees of complexity and in the end decided to use a simple one that concentrated on travel and fuel use - the two major parts of life that generate carbon dioxide emissions. There were other calculators on line that allowed for many other factors to be included but we felt that this became much too complex!
We were a mixed group of people - some in employment some retired, some in large homes and some in smaller accommodation, some with family spread out across the world and others with few relatives close at hand. We all had different lifestyles and expectations and almost everyone flew at least once every year. One member of the group commented that we live in a cold damp part of the world and a holiday somewhere warm and dry is important to preserve our sanity!
When you think about living in a carbon neutral way you tend to think of living in thick ethnic sweaters in cold homes and walking and cycling in the cold rain. These negative images are unlikely to encourage many to embrace living in an eco-friendly way. 
But as we discussed the way to live in an environmentally friendly way we we were not depressed because we all recognised that we all make compromises every day. Perfection is difficult to achieve in any part of life so we often have to make do with what is achievable within the time and resources we have available. There are some purists around who never make compromises. They may well achieve a high level of self satisfaction but they can be a real pain to be with!
Life is about travelling in a certain direction with a certain steer. Being aware of the actions that create problems for the environment makes us aware and attentive to options at every turn and we can adopt the least worst course of action. Real life involves many competing pressures on our lives and many different priorities all demanding our attention. Real life is doing our best as we accept the inevitable compromises but recognising that we are on a journey. All the small things that we can achieve are better than nothing at all. 

Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net