carbon footprints

I hardly ever check my MySpace anymore because I've found that it's mostly friend requests from whore-like hacker bots or adverts for crappy bands, but today I checked (as I do probably once every couple of days) to see if there might be anything of worth, and I stumbled upon a bulletin post from Rufus' page. It was about a Grass Roots movement called BlackOut Sabbath.

The aim is simple- on the summer solstice this year (which is this Saturday, June 21, 2008), from noon to midnight- you turn off every bit of electricity in your life. That means don't drive your car, turn off your cell phone, television and computer, unplug your refrigerator, turn off and uplug all of your lights. For twelve hours, forsake electricity and walk, bike, crawl or skate to your destinations- don't even ring a doorbell (figure something else out.) Then as twilight starts to fall (later in the day as this is the longest day of the year), write out a list of things you can commit to doing to changing the way you affect the planet and stick it to your fridge with a magnet. They don't have to be big things- Rufus cites a few of these and I've added some others:

• recycle more
• dry clothes on a clothes line
• go vegan
• change all lightbulbs to low energy bulbs
• ride your bike to the store/work/a friends' once a week
• unplug your computers/phone chargers when you're not using them

These things wouldn't significantly diminish the quality of living for any person. In fact, most people would hardly notice a different. But it doesn't take a scientist to realize and accept the fact that we as a human race- despite our individual responsibility (fault)- are murdering our planet and it's inhabitants. Movies like An Inconvenient Truth aren't telling tales about a far off world- OUR planet is the one on the brink of a New Ice Age. The television program Planet Earth wasn't designed to show the world pretty pictures of exotic plants and peculiar creatures- it is intended to display the natural beauty that our planet has to offer- and to caution us that those beauties are diminishing.

But these images in shows and movies shouldn't be one's only motivation. The environment our children will have inhabit will be a wreck if we don't make changes. So much of what we take for granted is affected by climate, and if we don't make a change now, it'll be too late. I feel passionate about a lot of things- civil unrest, displacement, starvation, and inhumane atrocities in Sudan and Uganda- poverty and political tyranny in Myanmar- illiteracy and homelessness in our own country- but what good is solving those things if there won't be a healthy planet upon which to reap the benefits of reparation, equality and prosperity in those places? This is a pressing, real matter for all of us. All of us. Not just Westerners.

So if you're a person that truly cares about this issue, put your guilt aside and make a change. Even one change- drinking less bottled water and recycling what you can- makes a difference. If you're someone who doesn't really care, find it in yourself to take twenty minutes and educate yourself. Google 'environmental crisis' or 'global warming' and spend a mere twenty minutes educating yourself. If you don't see the need for change after that...well... I suppose it's not my place to judge but fucking GET REAL. The planet is dying and isn't going to get healthy just because you or anyone ignores the problem.

Do it for you. Do it for your kids. Do it for all of the entities you don't even know you affect. Check out more at www.blackoutsabbath.org - you can find more links with informative videos as well as more ways to make a change there (as well as some insightful blogs by my lover, Rufus W.).


I have a show to do on Saturday night, but I still intend to follow through with this at home. I'm unplugging everything, turning off everything, and living the day outside (until call, of course.) It's not often I'm given direct inspiration and incentive to make a change, but maybe I shouldn't need either of those things. I - correction- we should want to make a change. Here it comes.