Carbon footprints and Diddy

So the other day my friend introduced me to the Web site http://www.carbonfootprint.com/ and we compared our individual carbon footprints. Considering that I have no car and walk pretty much everywhere, I thought I'd win hands down (he doesn't have a car either, but he does take the metro or bus about 10 times a day to get to and from classes). Alas, I lost by a landslide due to the fact that I take (on average) two round-trip flights between Europe and the U.S. each year. My friend? Just one or two flights per year between Spain and England.

And so I felt a little bit guilty, but there's not much I can do about it -- unless I just stay on one continent. But one of the joys (and difficulties) of living abroad for an extended period of time is that you develop two close sets of friends and family in two different places. So staying on one continent becomes very difficult.

My guilt has now completely vanished thanks to the pathetic YouTube video posted by the one and only Diddy. Poor, poor Diddy is so affected by rising fuel prices that he has to fly first class between NY and LA instead of taking his private jet. While I'm sure (or at least I hope) the video was done tongue-in-cheek, it is still just so completely disgusting and pathetic and irritating... But perhaps not as disgusting as the thought that "normal" people (meaning, not famous millionaires) who really are affected by rising fuel prices and food prices will continue to support this loser by buying his albums and clothes, listening to his music, and watching his reality TV show.

And while normal people with real problems to worry about still take it upon themselves to worry about the environment and find ways to help out, this jack-ass complains that he can't afford to take his own jet back and forth across country because it costs him $200K round trip.

I would love to see people boycott Diddy. Fortunately I don't have to, since I never buy any of his things or listen to his music or watch his TV shows anyway...

Anyways, just a random thought since I came across the news on Diddy on CNN. Back to more Spain-related matters in the next post.