do it yourself FREEDOM

Impacts: Money, Community

“It is better to travel well than to arrive.” – Buddha

By travel light I mean use less fuel to get you to your destination. For example, when I was a kid my dad would take us backpacking every summer in the Sierra mountains. We learned to carry everything we needed on our backs and pack-out what we packed-in. But not everyone else does this and a trail of human droppings is often unavoidable. Cans, bottles, plastic, toilet paper, and all sorts of trash makes it’s way into all sorts of places, including remote mountain lakes, albeit in far lesser quantities than down the hill. The reality is that we leave an impact everywhere we go even when we intend to leave no trace.

Every time we drive we burn fuel, leave a little rubber on the ground, wear down the road a little more, kill a few bugs, ok now this IS sounding ridiculous. But in my absurdity I’ve made the point. If we make a little effort we can reduce our impact when we’re on them move, even though we’ll never eliminate our impact completely. Even a naked man walking leaves footprints.

Every time we make a conscious effort travel light we lower our impact which makes the world a tiny bit cleaner. We also tend to save ourselves some money because it tends to be cheaper to travel light because you burn less gas, buy fewer plane tickets, make fewer trips to the auto mechanic, and it all adds up to real savings. The environmental impacts will seem minuscule compared to the financial benefits but as more people make an effort to consider the footprints they leave behind we’ll all start to feel the benefits.

Take Action

• Make fewer trips around town.
• When running errands chose the shortest route.
• Buy a more fuel efficient car.
• Walk more.
• Ride your bike more.