Due to concerns about the current changing climate, and the prevailing notion that our greenhouse gas emissions (namely Carbon Dioxide) are significantly to blame, calculators have sprung up all over the place to help us determine how we are personally contributing to this dilemma. As someone who is leveraging this awareness to promote my latest business, I thought I should at least see what they say about me. I shall opine on the matter later; right now it’s figures that you are most likely interested in…
For want of fairness I tried 3 different sites. Each took about 15 minutes to complete as I am on top of my figures:
3.026 tonnes/year – Perhaps indicative of where my heart lies, but realistically, too low!
6.25 tonnes/year – More in-depth questioning, also covered eating and shopping habits – this is my pick as the best calculator.
3.68 tonnes/year – This doesn’t include food (not considered) or my motorcycle / public transport use (site won’t save the values). If we take the 1.3 tonnes for food from the second survey and add a probably generous 1.25 tonnes for my light other-transport usage, we would arrive at:
6.23 tonnes/year; which supports the second survey quite well. This one would be pretty good if it worked, however, diet is clearly significant so its absence is remiss.
What does this cover?
- Mixed diet of mostly local produce
- Gas heating
- All the mod cons
- 2500 miles on a motorcycle
- Taxi once/month, Bus return to town once/week
- Train return to Dublin once/year
- Rail & Sail to Scotland once/year
- Flight to UK once/year
- Flight to Europe once/year
I tried to think of typical scenarios. There will be the odd year that I fly half-way around the world, but currently it is an exception.
How does this compare to others? Most sites give the UK average to be around 10-11 tonnes/year, putting me ~40% below average, but still above the target of 3 tonnes/year. I’ll look at the changes I have made, and the possibilities for future ones in an upcoming post.
How much we control the climate is very much still up for debate. Here are 2 interesting websites that look at the science against the notion:
This matter may be debatable, but one thing that is clear is the squandering of Earth’s resources: Our society is wasteful and unsustainable. Reducing consumption and waste (improving efficiency) in any and all forms is both laudable and necessary. The attention should really be on our Global Footprint, however, we humans generally need eased into big ideas; so, as “a starter for 10″, I’m happy to promote CO2 reduction with Cycle Send It.
