I think I'm getting old.
I was doing some house choirs the other day and felt like listening to some music.
Nothing too complex...so I settled for some simple fun pop music.
When scrolling through my Spotify I eventually settled for a playlist from the 00's.
As horrible as it sounds I just prefer it to the modern-day stuff.
And I ended up having fun listening to the tracks of my teenage years.
I guess this is how it starts.
Getting older.
"Everything used to be better".
Admittedly I am starting to show this behavior with more things.
I went to get some gas today.
I filled the tank and went to pay.
"Do you want to pay 20 cents extra so you can drive CO2 neutral, sir?" the girl at the counter said.
I never heard this before ever. This was new.
It made me slightly confused. I was just here getting some gas, a simple act.
I didn't want to be confronted with his new 'choice'.
I said 'No' to the girl.
But getting in my car I did detect a small sense of guilt.
Maybe I did the wrong thing.
Should I drive Co2 neutral?
I never felt so bad getting gas as today.
I did some research and apparently that 20 cents extra (1 cent per liter) will be used to take care of some trees.
But I can't help but think...who's going to check if that's truly done.
It seems more to me that CO2, in this case, is being used to make me pay a little more to take my guilt away.
Who knows?...maybe I am too skeptical.
It did make me think though.
Would it be possible to use CO2 as a guilt tool to create a new religion?
The climate religion, because it applies to everyone. Everyone is guilty.
Just like the good old days where you could pay the church for your sins, now you can pay companies for your sins.
"I am a dirty fossil fuel driving human being....but thank fuck I already paid for my sins at the gas station so I'm all good!"
You, see?
This is how my head works when I'm confronted with these ideas when doing a simple activity like buying a product.
I don't want to think about it, I find it very tiring.
I wish Shell would just do this for me.
Hide the 20 cents in the gas price and just make me and everyone else that gets gas CO2 neutral all the time if it's so easy to do by planting some trees.
But it won't be so. Now every time I go to Shell I will have to go through the guilt trip.
Which will make avoid Shell and go to the unmanned pump.
So I can get gas in peace.