The Carbon Footprint For Cruisers, Part 2

Vero Beach Public Library
No LL

Continuing Part 1:

But those web page polls are very superficial, and they make a ton of unmentioned assumptions. There are numerous other factors that make shore based living more expensive and polluting. One can get a handle on that by considering the many things that a typical middle class American own and maintains that cruisers do without. Here's my short list.

Air conditioner, ATV, bath tub/shower, cars/SUVs (2 or more), cable/electric/sewer/water hookups, CD player, clothes washer + dryer, de-humidifier, dishwasher, electric coffee maker, electric mixer, electric shaver, food blender, foot bath, furnace, garden tractor, hair curler, hair dryer, humidifier, Jacuzzi bath, jet ski, lawn mower, lawn sprinklers, leaf blower, microwave oven, phone (land line), pressure washer, snow blower, snowmobile, space heater, surround sound, toaster, TVs (3 or more), vacuum cleaner, vaporizer, VCR/DVD+DVR , video game console, outdoor lighting, ceiling fans, not to mention a house and garage.

Now offset that with the list of things that cruising sailors need that homeowners don't. SSB radio, VHF radio, radar, chart plotter, anchor light. It hardly balances, does it?

Even beyond gadgets, it takes energy to provide us with the things we consume; food, clothes, etc. How do we get a handle on the total footprint? An op-ed article in the New York Times called What's Your Consumption Factor? from 1/2/2008 NYT by Jared Diamond. Mr. Diamond said "The average rates at which people consume resources like oil and metals, and produce wastes like plastics and greenhouse gases, are about 32 times higher in North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia than they are in the developing world." Based on that 1 to 32 scale, I think sailing cruisers consume about 4.

But the real benefit of the cruising life goes beyond expense and pollution. Cruisers enjoy the simplicity of their life style and the freedom from responsibility to acquire and maintain such an enormous pile of stuff that you don't really need.

George Carlin said it best. He said, "A house is a pile of stuff with a roof over it." I think that many (perhaps most) people become prisoners to their own collection of stuff. I you want to escape that trap, then start cruising.