Prius Drivers Must Pay Membership Fee

Today I received an alarming pop-up message (pictured below) from a program on my computer. I had to read the message a few times as I thought it was so ridiculous that it must be a joke.

Aparently Word Web feels that they need to take some sort of social stance by charging fees for the use of their software to people who (in their opinion) are causing more than their fair share of harm to the environment. While I think it is crazy, I guess I don’t care so much since Word Web is a private company and can do what it wants. I do wonder where this kind of thinking is leading. You can think of all sorts of crazy scenarios where you may have to pay a tax or surcharge if your behavior doesn’t fit the norm. On a similar note in the public front, we already have some states auctioning “carbon credits” to businesses.

I personally think the climate change panic is ridiculous (I don’t care to get into why at the moment, and I don’t hate you if you disagree). So, following Word Web’s initiative, I have decided to enact a new pricing policy for those viewing my blog. Here it is:
The following charges apply to the viewing and use of ryanhegs.com:

• $10 per month for Prius Drivers
• $25 per month if your Prius has a bumper sticker to the effect of: “save the planet,” “the earth is our mother,” or anything “green” related
• $5 per month for each additional bumper sticker

So, Prius drivers, email me at ryan@ryanhegs.com and we can work out the payment details….failure to pay is theft! Ok, so I’m not really serious. The Word Web license was a bit of a shock to me though. Here is the full text:

WordWeb 5.x Free version licensing

WordWeb free version may be used indefinitely only by people who take at most two commercial flights (not more than one return flight) in any 12 month period. People who fly more than this need to purchase the Pro version if they wish to continue to use it after a 30-day trial period.

Global greenhouse gas emissions are currently around 5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person per year, and probably need to be reduced by at least 80% have a good chance of avoiding dangerous warming. Most computer users are responsible for far more emissions than is sustainable. For example two short-medium distance return flights can be equivalent to over 1 tonne of emissions1: more than an average person can safely emit over an entire year.

If you do not qualify you must uninstall the program after the 30-day trial period or purchase WordWeb Pro. The licensing model is designed to allow relatively non-wealthy people to use the program free of charge, and to provide a small incentive for other people who fly a lot to cut down.

Whenever a user no longer meets the above requirements, and they have installed the product for more than 30 days, they must uninstall the product or purchase WordWeb Pro.

There is one exception to the above: not-for-profit educational establishments may make a network installation of WordWeb for the use of their students (regardless of whether their students individually meet the licensing requirement).

See additional licence discussion.

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1 Flights are particularly bad because of additional non-carbon emissions and cloud formation at high altitude: the short-term warming effect is estimated to be many times worse than the same CO2 emission at ground level, perhaps a factor of two worse on a twenty-year timescale, but it could be worse than this - the science is not well understood.
(source: http://wordweb.info/free/licence5.html)

“The science is not well understood” - about the only thing they said that makes sense.