First, allow me to be a little more succinct, and perhaps clarify my position. I'm not suggesting you
not do any of what you already do. What you're doing is more than most, as you camp with a small teardrop, or perhaps a CTC. What your
not doing is camping with a motor home, or fifth wheel camper that's 30' or 40' long. (If you'll notice, those outnumber small campers by a large percentage.) No one can expect you to pick up after everybody, though you do try, so what you're doing, I applaud.
Cosmo wrote:[size=150][color=#000080]What can be done to be a better guest of Mother Nature?
Not camp or hike? I don't expect that to happen, as the woods are supposed to be for all of us. But it seems to some that we are supposed to leave that up to the "experts", like Greenpeace, The Sierra Club, Earthfirst, etc., etc. (Sorry, bordering on political.)
Cosmo wrote:I did the #1 Green thing by not having children. Less humans less problems.
A little extreme, to my way of thinking, but that's also a personal choice.
Cosmo wrote:Some of my friends keep suggesting suicide would lower my carbon footprint...
You'll notice that
they aren't pursuing their suggestion to you.
Cosmo wrote:I pickup trash at every campsite and while hiking. I don't get it all but I like to think I am a member of the "Part of the solution club" not "Part of the problem" club.
I drive a fuel efficient car. Once I arrive I use human power travel where practical and fun(boots, bicycle, kayak).
I steer away from heavily packaged goods
I avoid disposable stuff where practical. My sin is paper plates when water is a concern.
I avoid plastic where possible
I am solar which lowers noise and exhaust.
I use only rechargeable batteries in all devices. One Eneloop rechargeable AA saves about $235 and reduces the waste stream.
I refuse to use disposable water bottles. Of all the trash I see - drink bottles are prolific
=Cosmo
I would hardly consider paper plates a "sin". After all, they are wood pulp, and fully biodegradable.
Like was already suggested, there's not much more you can do, realistically, and you already do more than most, so I suggest you try not to worry so much about your "carbon footprint", and enjoy your surroundings.
Lastly, allow me this transgression to explain something.
I was in the Navy, in San Diego, when the Exxon Valdez was towed into the National City shipyards for repair. Greenpeace was there, protesting "the world's dependency on fossil fuels" as they put it. What turned me against Greenpeace is that they were "protesting", by driving in circles around the tanker and tugs, in Zodiacs, pushed by outboard motors, burning.........yep, fossil fuels. Now, if they had been out there in canoes, sailboats, and rowboats, I could have formed a different opinion, but they weren't, and that showed me a great deal about how those type of groups think.
This should explain my first post in this thread concerning my statement of what we're told, versus what I, (or we), have seen.
I'll leave it at that.....Roger