Last weekend, as our neighbours drove us to dinner in their Ford M-1 Abrams, we were discussing my past lust for a Hummer. You see, I work on environmental issues, so there is a conflict. It's like PETA members wearing fur coats to the circus. I have to say that I have reasoned my way out of this lust, although I do occasionally succumb to it momentarily. I used to think that it was a no-net gain situation, where my daily work would compensate for the damage I would do, but my wife suggested that outsiders might think that I was just trying to guarantee my job in perpetuity...
Perhaps SUV owners should be able to participate in carbon trading permits. But I have also come to the conclusion that most SUV owners would have no idea what I was talking about. Heck, most car owners have no idea what they are. This made me wonder about who the most destructive segment of the population are, and I have to say that real estate developers are way up there. I know that real estate clears more forest acreage by far than the entire wood, pulp & paper industry combined. But of course that is for our convenience, and it is usually political suicide to suggest limiting urban growth in those places where forests are being cleared.
