I've been doing a little reading over at cleanmpg.com before bed lately. I noticed a little TerraPass graphic in some guys signatures, so I finally checked it out. The website is pretty cool, and looks great. The picture is one of their badges...

They have a store where you can buy energy saving devices, or even carbon credits. In addition, they have a pretty detailed carbon footprint calculator. I was a little disappointed in my results with it, because my energy provider uses all fossil fuel (it's a co-op so I can't opt out). This is especially disappointing when there is wind energy available close by at 4 cents per kwh cheaper than what we pay.

The site also details the company's projects (clean energy, farm power, and landfill gas capture).

For us Christians who wish to reduce our detrimental impact upon God's creation, this website will be somewhat helpful. It can suggest a few ways that you can lessen your carbon footprint as well as support a good cause. The only reason I'm not too excited about it is that I haven't seen any data supporting the validity of carbon offsets. Does anyone have any?

This past weekend was Homecoming at Baylor University, Waco's best university. As you can tell, part of the festivities included a bonfire. This year had more people than I remembered, but a smaller fire. Luckily the small fire was able to burn down the Texas Tech logo, which was about all the damage BU was able to inflict upon them this weekend...

While attending the bonfire I was wondering... Is Al Gore flying around at night looking for things like this to condemn? I'm sure he would bable on and on about this leaving a tremendous carbon footprint. Perhaps, but it kept us warm and provided a fun atmosphere, which might be worth the carbon produced.

If God intended creation for mankind, and fundamentalists will argue that he did, then it is for our enjoyment. Therefore, a fire of this kind would produce enjoyment and accomplish the purpose of creation. Even if one would take a hedonistic approach, it could be argued that the enjoyment produced trumped the downside of the carbon produced. So the only way it could be argued that the fire was bad would be to assume that any carbon production was bad... In that case, I should stop breathing.

What does this have to do with Old Testament Ecology? Not a lot, but perhaps very much... It got me thinking, and helped me move along some ideas for my outline. I have also enjoyed reading through most of the titles on my bibliography. I did have one snag, there was a book I tried to get via interlibrary loan which was only found in two US libraries. They both declined to loan it even after they quoted me a price and I agreed to it... So things are moving along nicely.