Carbon nuetral: halfway there?

It's about that time of year again, and for me that means significant travel for the next five to six months. For those who don't know me, my name is Dylan Natale and I do my best to put together a couple of movie segments each season (last year with Rage Films and Atomic Freeskiing/Kris Ostenss). To do so means hectic and sometimes obscure travelling to wherever the conditions are right.

While I jump at the opportunity to see new places, ski new terrain, and meet new people, there is a growing part of me that feels a sense of guilt in my lifestyle as well. With constant travel, many times in a full size truck towing a snowmobile, comes a large carbon footprint.

While some argue global warming is yet to be a factual truth, I can’t help but worry that frivolous carbon dioxide outputs (not excluding myself) will create milder, shorter, and drier winters in the years to come. I spend much of the winter traveling in search of unique terrain to ski, gaining access much of the time by snowmobile. I realize the conundrum I’ve created by snowmobiling so frequently yet still worrying about warming temperature trends and my personal carbon footprint.

However, during the summer months, I pride myself for my conservation efforts: I ride my bike, unplug electronics, shop locally, turn off my roommates lights, etc. etc. And for the past few years I justified my winter travels by my frugality come summer. But last May, during one of those agonizing stretches of flat, straight road I-80 offers through Nevada, I realized I could, and should, do more. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do something to offset all the miles I travel. What I came up with is a project that will offset the carbon emissions produced by my truck and snowmobile by implementing a tree planting program in a nature reserve in Nicaragua.

With ski areas opening here in Utah the project is about to kick off as I try to get my legs back under me. I will keep the updates coming as to both my whereabouts this season and to the success of the project, and probably a few random posts here and there.

Hope to see you out there,

Dylan