US Book Launch: Day 1

From the desk of Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief, Guinness World Records
4 August 2007
16:30 GMT
London, UK

I’ve never been a big supporter of the theory that humans are destroying the planet with the carbon dioxide we produce. As far as I’m concerned, the Sun, that fiery, 1.4-million km-diameter ball of nuclear fusion that we orbit, is far more likely to be the cause of global warming than the taxi I’ve just taken to the train station.

Until I hear otherwise, I’ll continue to have the same feeling in my gut that I had when I first heard about the Millennium Bug. (My journalist friend Simon Richmond was one of the first to “break” this story in the UK, and I doubted him from the moment he first talked about it.) There’s a lot of bandwaggoning going on, and as someone who works in an office where everyone’s forever flying around the world, I feel under a lot of pressure to act.

But who can say for sure that we need to? For every argument in support, there’s another against. In The Times today, for example, we learn that your carbon footprint between your home and the corner shop is larger if you WALK than if you DRIVE! Why? Because the production of the food that you require for energy to make that walk is more damaging to the environment – especially if you get your energy from those pesky methane-producing cows, and particularly organic cows, which give off more of a whiff! – than the production of your car’s fuel and its emissions.

Anyway, whatever the case, I’ve decided to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from the flight I’m about to take from London to New York. If the whole thing is bogus, I’ve at least still contributed to the promotion of industries that care about the environment. This, to me, is important – we need to do what we can to limit the impact we have on the environment, from caring about litter to reducing waste. Also, it’s a win-win situation – especially given the fact that it costs a mere £4.80 ($10) to off-set this one-way flight.

Find out more about the impact we – and the sun – are having on the planet by checking out the forthcoming edition of GWR 2008. And be sure that, going forward, everyone at GWR will be trying our best to offset the amount of travel we do. After all, we don’t want to be contributing to the breaking of any more environmental records!

CG