Well, that's over now, the election that is, and we're going to have ourselves some change.

That's what it was all about, right? Both sides promised us some variation of change, change, change.

But I got to thinking, what if we all say we want change, but that's not what we really mean? What if, when we say we want change, that means what we want is for other people to change - and for us to stay the same? Where does that leave us?

I drove up to Wisconsin the other day. It was a long trip with lots of road construction and slow moving traffic. And fate put me, over and over, next to an enormous fire engine red Dodge RAM 3500 heavy-duty pickup from Moores Hill, Indiana. The Dodge was pulling a long flat bed trailer with a huge sign strapped upright on it. The Dodge looked like new but was blowing a cloud of blue exhaust all over. I couldn't escape the Dodge nor could I escape its foul smelling pollution.

So the change I wanted was from the decision maker in the Dodge. I wanted the guy in charge to tune his truck or pick the right capacity truck to pull the load he was pulling.

I wanted some change - from the other guy.

But then I got thinking, was my trip avoidable? Could I have forfeited some shut-eye, gotten up earlier and beat all the traffic and congestion? Could I have saved the gas and my own pollution by not taking the job assignment? With better planning could I have done my work long distance?

I don't know. But while I pointed at my finger at the blue smoke belching from the Dodge, I wondered if my indignation was all pretend, a cover up for my own behavior which I could change but which I didn't want to change.

The drive to Wisconsin got me thinking about my carbon footprint. I'm a little confused about my carbon footprint. To be honest, up until recently, I didn't really know I had one.

I keep looking at my feet to figure it out. I guess that's the wrong place to start.

I looked up "carbon footprint" on the Internet. The first site that pops up on search engine "Goggle" doesn't do so by accident. Companies spend a lot of time, money and energy getting their sites to be the first ones up. One expends a lot of energy to be #1.

Anyway, the first site informed me that "every time we drive, fly, heat or cool our house, and run appliances we emit carbon dioxide." But the advice I got was not to turn the heat down, the a/c off or to stay home. I was not told to change my behavior.

The site explained that in order for me to be part of the solution I have to offset my carbon footprint by paying someone else to plant trees and let those trees do their thing for the atmosphere.

The trading of carbon offsets is reported to currently be a 21.5 billion industry. There are two trading exchanges competing to be the dominant market for carbon offsets. In this arena companies are buying and selling the rights to give off emissions. In other words, you can buy off your carbon footprint.

Confused? I am.

First, this carbon offset market is unregulated. When I think of billions and unregulated I think of Credit Default Swaps. We had a whole sector of the financial industry investing in mortgage backed securities insured by credit default swaps. And it turns out, it was all pretend, it was not insurance at all.

Now we talk climate change and carbon footprint and pollution offsets. We talk change but half of it is talk and half of it is pretend. "Offset" sure doesn't sound like change to me.

I read somewhere that the door to change only opens from the inside. The flip side is that the door to pretend can be flung open quite dramatically from the outside.

Does anyone out there feel a draft?