JERRY SEINFELD IS BIG FOOT!

Seinfeld's cozy Colorado digs: "You ever noticed how celebrities need 500 rooms to feel at home?"

Okay okay, I needed a catchy title, but it's relevant.

I read an article recently about a mammoth home Seinfeld is selling. You know the kind: 14,200-square-foot interior (the joint also has a deck the size of an airport tarmac); 11 bedrooms; 11 full bathrooms and three half baths; and a great room that looks like it took an entire forest to build. Asking price: $18.25 million. The kind of place you definitely need when you go on vacation and take half of New York City with you.

MoneyWatch.com (of course) reports that the "enormous compound is only a small part of Seinfeld’s massive real estate portfolio," which also includes the East Hampton estate that he copped off Billy Joel for the low low price of $25.6 million.

Now, I'm of the opinion that Jerry Seinfeld is one of the best entertainers around. But I think high-profile celebs like he are insanely overpaid (and TV should be publicly controlled, not run by profit-mongering corporations) and tend to live obscenely extravagant lifestyles. The kind of sickeningly self-indulgent spending that my mother has always referred to as "wicked." Mum's no fool.

Anyway, when I read the Seinfeld article, I wondered: What is this guy's ecological footprint? Hey, I have no reason to doubt that he's a nice person and he certainly brings joy to people. But does that entitle him (or anyone) to hack up the environment like John Bunyon on steroids. (Not to mention the accumulation of wealth that, if not spent on mansions and Porsches could, I dunno, save lives.)

Well, Seinfeld was just an example to illustrate a point. I've already talked about CEOs in this blog. But this stuff applies to all of us -- to one degree or another. I believe we should all ask ourselves questions like: How much is enough? What do I really need? What is my ecological footprint?


What is an "ecological footprint"?

Here are a couple of plain-English definitions of "ecological footprint":

1/ A measure of how much biologically productive land and water area an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates using prevailing technology and resource management practices;

2/ the amount of productive land appropriated on average by each person (in the world, a country, etc) for food, water, transport, housing, waste management, and other purposes.

You have one, I have one, America has one. Every individual, community and country has one. The problem is that our eco footprints are way too big -- our resource usage, our wastefulness, and our sheer greed are simply unsustainable. And we're in a hurry to crash.


"Need" Vs. "Want"

I've often asked people the question "Why do you need a big car/big house/fifty pairs of shoes/etc etc?" and received the answer "Because I want it/them!" And the answer comes without a hint of irony, without a whiff of the notion that there's a huge divide between "need" and "want" and a lot of people, in the Third World in particular, are tumbling into that chasm. At it's killing the planet herself.

Just as there's the concept of "peak oil," there's essentially a "peak everything." The days of houses on tasty blocks of land are numbered. We have to accept that. The gas guzzler must go. Shopping for the sake of shopping must, and will, atrophy. Bottled water is a disastrous gimmick that has to end. The list goes on.

I can honestly see a day when the government can't push the truth to one side any longer and there will be limits on a variety of things and fines for not recycling. Finite resources and insane consumption. You do the math.


What to Do?

You already know this answer to this, right? It's commonsense. Cut back. Use less. Recycle everything possible. Buy used, not new. Live more modestly. Don't live a consumer-junkie lifestyle. Accumulating isn't living; and it just may well be the fast track to murdering the planet.

Read up on the facts and talk about this stuff. Spread the word.

On the large scale, it's the usual things: sign petitions, write to your congressman, join environmental groups, picket corporations, do anything you can to pressure for limits, controls and regulation when it comes to any kind of environmental devastation and degradation. If you know how to use the Internet, it's pretty easy to do quite a lot: If you're willing to put forth a modicum of effort.

Live an activist's life in everything you do. Think like an activist. From the small, to the big. It's easier than you think. And the payoff is pretty cool: survival.

This is getting too long. We'll pick it up again. Maybe a bit more on consumption.

Take care and be practical,
Adrian

IMPORTANT FOOTNOTE: Death row inmate Troy Davis, about whom I've written on more than one occasion, is now scheduled to be executed on Sept. 21. Not only is the case against him full of holes, to execute anyone demeans the humanity of us all. Please GO HERE to sign a petition to try and win clemency for Troy Davis. You can also GO HERE to help spread the word. Thank you!