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Sun, 26 Feb 2006

What's Your Carbon Footprint? ?

'Green Tips' Newsletter, Feb '06, Union of Concerned Scientists

Few people stop to think about their personal contributions to global warming, or how their daily lives affect the environment. Driving our cars and trucks, heating our homes, cooking our food - all of our normal, necessary human activities generate carbon dioxide (CO2), the heat-trapping gas that's mostly responsible for clilmate change.

The average American - that's you and me - generates 20 tons of CO2 every year - about the same amount as three new cars!

What's your carbon footprint? Find out how much CO2 you're producing by using the EPA 's online greenhouse gas calculator.

UCS has come up with a few tips to help everybody shrink their carbon footprints, quickly and easily.

Transportation: Each gallon of gasoline burned by a car or truck releases 24 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere.

• Choose the most fuel-efficient vehicle for your needs. If you own more than one vehicle, use the one that gets the worst mileage only when you can fill it with passengers or cargo. And when the time comes to buy a new car or truck, look for the cleanest, most fuel-efficient gasoline, gasoline-electric hybrid, or alternative-fuel model in its class.
• Drive less. Carpooling two days a week can reduce your annual CO2 emissions by 1,590 pounds. Combining errands into one trip can lower emissions even further.
• Read the UCS article: Common Sense on Climate Change Solution #1: Make Better Cars and SUVs

Energy Use: In general, every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity used in your home generates 2.3 pounds of CO2.

• Change a bulb. If every American family replaced just one incandescent light bulb with an energy-saving compact fluorescent bulb, CO2 emissions would drop by more than 90 billion pounds—the same as taking 7.5 million cars off the road.
• Go digital. Replacing a mechanical thermostat with a digital model allows you to save energy by programming your heat to turn on and off at preset times.
• Look for the Energy Star label. Appliances bearing this label use significantly less electricity than their counterparts.
• Buy green power. Many utilities give you the option of purchasing electricity generated from renewable resources such as solar and wind energy. See UCS Green Power Buying Guide.

Other Tips:

• Recycle. Reducing waste in landfills reduces emissions of CO2 and methane (another heat-trapping gas). Recycling also uses less energy than manufacturing new materials.
• Buy local. Food grown on local farms does not have far to travel, minimizing transportation-related emissions.

UCS has shown us how to reduce or eliminate our personal heat-trapping emissions and achieve a "climate-neutral" lifestyle. We can combine our individual efforts with support for public energy efficiency and conservation projects, such as reforestation for carbon "offset." See Climate Neutral Network or Climate Star for ideas.