Pollution because of geocaching

[+hzoi]

The OP makes a valid point, regardless of the redirecting and jabs many have responded with. Geocaching is something that gets me to see and enjoy parts of the environment that I would not otherwise see, yet by driving there I negatively imact the environment. Would I have driven somewhere else if I didn't geocache? Perhaps. But there's no sense wondering what I might have done when the reality is I went for a drive and found geocaches, and in doing so I burned gasoline and produced air pollution.

 

I try to make up for this by exercising increased sensitivity and awareness in other areas. I recycle like it's going out of style -- it helps that I lived in Germany for a few years, and failing to recycle is pretty much cause for active shaming over there. I encourage my Soldiers to recycle and carpool when we can rather than everyone taking individual cars to an event. I take steps to reduce my power and water usage, the latter especially since I currently live in El Paso, an area not known for its abundance of flowing streams. And I hope that balances out, because I enjoy geocaching and I don't intend on stopping.

[+Sagefox]

15 thousand years ago, a split second in global time, North America was covered with a mile thick sheet of ice and the polar ice cap extended as far south as Mexico.

 

Not quite that far:

 

 

Where did it go...

 

Back into the ocean. Sea level then was between 400 and 450 lower than today.

[+GrateBear]

Bike caching, that's the future! (I got a bike to do more caches in lane based series.)

 

But bike, walk or whatever - geocaching is overall /good/ because it encourages physical and mental activity. It's a motivator that encourages you to improve several things about yourself to achieve, and those improvements will carry through into the rest of your life.

 

That is actually how I started. Lived in Chicago when I first started geocaching, and rode my bike all over the north and west side of the city--from Soldier Field to Evanston, from the lake out to Skokie Blvd. Had a great time and saw a lot that I would not have seen in a car. Would do 20 - 25 miles on a Sat or Sun.

[knowschad]

Hello!

 

I don't own a car, and don't know if I would become addicted to driving around and finding as many as possible if I did. This is just my thoughts on all the pollution geocaching generates. How much fossil energy is burned a day because of geocaching is hard to estimate, but I'm sure the atmosphere could do without!

 

Man, what about all of the fuel it took to put the satellites in orbit... just so we could go hunting for plastic McDonald's toys hidden inside a plastic Lock n Lock. Seems like they could have found a better reason for those satellites to justify the rocket fuel pollution.

 

Ummmm.... I don't think they put those satellites there for us to geocache with. I think it had more to do with blowing other nations to smithereens. We just happened to find a use for them that was a bit more fun.

[knowschad]

Bike caching, that's the future! (I got a bike to do more caches in lane based series.)

 

But bike, walk or whatever - geocaching is overall /good/ because it encourages physical and mental activity. It's a motivator that encourages you to improve several things about yourself to achieve, and those improvements will carry through into the rest of your life.

 

I wonder if anyone's done studies on whether geocachers are, as a species, more productive individuals as a whole?

 

I'm definitely more productive since before I started caching. And smarter and funnier and prettier and faster and nicer and more able to scale trees, rappel down cliffs, and spelunkier. True story.

 

[+Harry Dolphin]

I guess this comic strip expresses my opinion of the OP's question:

 

[+boothie103]

I bet you are still finding caches made of plastic, metal or with some other synthetic material.

[+dandq]

I'm confused on what the OP's position or objective is here. It seems to suggest that geocaching is bad since it causes discretionary burning of fossil fuels. Yet he participates in the activity in (several countries mind you) and promotes the activity by having 3 caches of his own, two of which have parking coordinates and the third is along a road that you would most likely have to drive to get to.

 

So other than just being another in the sanctimonious chorus of "stop killing the earth with your evil and selfish human ways (even though I am also contributing)" I don't see a purpose for the post.

[+bflentje]

Like I said, if you truly honestly care about the environment, your targets would be China and India. Any other talk is just laughable.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/china-smog-almost-50-times-recommendations-042958972.html

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Like I said, if you truly honestly care about the environment, your targets would be China and India. Any other talk is just laughable.

 

http://news.yahoo.co...-042958972.html

 

I just got back from Beijing on Saturday. That article talks about how bad it was last Monday. It looked *much* worse on Friday and Saturday. I did some caching on Saturday morning at the Old Summer Palace. It was a beautiful place for some geocaching but here is what it looked like.