Climate change
We might live on Mars if you don’t know that the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference started today. It might be the start to reconsider geocaching a bit too.
This WE was very rainy, which resulted not in a lot of caching. I only managed to tackle 3 caches:
- Konijntjes tellen (GC21HP9): yet another fine mystery by il imperiestro which isn’t too difficult mystery to solve (if one doesn’t miscalculate, like I did). It brought me to a nice piece of nature, which was converted to some kind of wetlands due to the rain
- Kouterbos – The Only Way Is Up by CashCoeur (GC2126W): found in the poring rain
- Kouterbos – Zoek-è-wa (GC213H8), the second cache by by CashCoeur. He seem to have found the perfect way to uphold the tradition of the innovative and witty caches typical for this area. I logged this cache with soaked clothes.
When you look at November, it wasn’t the typical type of weather you would expect: warm, much wind and and a lot rain. I’m not a scientist, but there is – in my eyes – something going on that causes this climate change. One doesn’t need to be scientist to observe or (in some cases) condemn this.
It certainly let you start thinking about things. I try to do my best in living as environmental friendly as possible. That counts also for geocaching. Let’s face it: geocaching can put a burden on the environment if one doesn’t pay attention. I’m not only talking about the obvious things like not damaging anything in the nature you’re visiting. There are plenty of other things to think about:
- all information about geocaching resides on internet. How much energy is needed for adding, keeping and retrieving all this information? Does Groundspeak use the services of a green hosting company or compensates the CO2 via carbon offsetting? Do you use a green provider for your household energy needs?
- do you work paperless or use at least tools like GC Tour in order to minimize (recycled) paper?
- how do you travel towards the cache location? What type of vehicle do you use? Are you trying to use public transport if possible? Are you carpooling when you are geocaching in group? Do you offset carbon if all the rest is not possible? If so, is it a commercial fund or an NGO based fund that special attention to African partners, which tend to be overlooked in the global emissions trading.
These were only a couple of things to consider. I leave it up to you how things fit in your geocaching experience. After all, it’s on our own interest. Our sport will vanish when there’s nothing left to discover.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Thanks for this article, very thought-provoking. I did a lot of research before I bought a system for my geocaching. It is such a fun hobby. What receiver do you use? Visit my site if you’d like to read more. Thanks again for a very informative site!