Assessing One’s Carbon Footprint
The issue of global warming may seem remote to many residents of the Pacific Northwest, especially as winter weather has returned with a vengeance at the time of this writing. Nevertheless, global warming and climate change are real, and will have serious repercussions for the environment and human society. It is easy to become discouraged, and feel helpless to do anything about this problem, but there are actions that individuals can take. Collectively, even seemingly small changes can make a difference. In particular, we can all be more mindful of our own “carbon footprints”, and the impacts of our personal choices.
There are a variety of “carbon calculators” available on the web, and it is informative to use them to estimate one’s own effective emissions of CO2. An example is maintained by the University of California, Berkeley at https://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/calculator (works best in Internet Explorer or Safari – CHECK). Upon entering a few basic parameters, e.g., vehicle miles driven per year and MPG, the application provides an estimation of one’s household carbon footprint, and how it compares with other households in the United States and the world. It is particularly interesting to explore trade-offs. For example, would there be a greater reduction in one’s carbon footprint associated with switching from a 20 to 30 MPG driven 10,000 miles or forgoing a cross-country trip (4,600 miles round-trip) by air? The answer here is not obvious, but forgoing the air travel results in a somewhat larger reduction. What about switching to 100% organic produce, meat, and dairy versus turning down the thermostat 1ºF during the day and 2ºF during the night in a Seattle home heated by electricity? Switching to organic food actually has a bigger reduction in carbon emissions, though it does not spare your wallet like turning the thermostat down does. The web site also allows one to assess the carbon costs with utilities (taking into account regional effects such as the hydropower for Washington state), various food groups, and other elements of modern living.
We want to emphasize that this short piece is not meant as a morality play. We merely wish to point out that there are convenient and interesting ways to estimate carbon footprints, and that some of these results may be surprising. It is becoming evident that we should do what we can to reduce our CO2 emissions, and for that matter, preserve non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels, and there are now the means to make informed choices on a personal level.