Starbucks and global warming

We were watching a show on the 1960s the other day, which brought back to me vivid memories of San Francisco’s Summer of Love in 1967.  I was only a child then, in a very traditional home, but you couldn’t be a child in the City without being aware of the vast societal upheaval going on.

Mr. Bookworm asked the children what they thought today’s big issues were.  Each, without any thought,  piped up “global warming.”  They couldn’t think of any other issue and refused at first even to consider the War in Iraq as something that , in future, might matter from a historical perspective.

I can’t blame the children.  Outside of strictly academic worksheets (reading, writing & arithmetic), at least 30% of the handouts they bring home from school hammer home environmental issues.  I’m certain, therefore, that my very worried children would be relieved to know that the UN is coming up with a plan to fix it all.  I’m one of those who believes that the sun might actually be somewhat involved in the global warming trend, but I rather doubt the ultimate UN plan will propose something useful like attaching large jet propulsion systems to the earth to push us a little further away from our beloved big star.

There is, however, a simpler proposal than removing us from the sun’s harmful emissions:  everybody should stop drinking coffee.  Turns out that fresh roasted coffee is a big CO2 off-gaser.  This probably didn’t matter a few decades ago, when Sanka was the drink of choice.  But now, with more than 13,000 Starbucks worldwide, there’s no doubt in my mind that something has to be done.

[And yes, most of my conclusions above are a joke, although the facts are correct.]