Yesterday, my neighbors goaded me into calculating my household’s “carbon footprint.” This is an estimate of the carbon dioxide emissions generated directly at the household level (based on utility bills, car mileage, etc.).
First, the bad news: my household spews out an estimated 22.35 tons of CO2 per year! And this does not even take into account the odd cord or two of firewood we burn in our wood stove. It also does not take into account any emissions by my office, my business travel, or the kids’ school.
And, in the good news/bad news department: our number is the lowest of all our neighborhood!
We used a calculator supplied by a local activist group. The group is calling upon each of us to compensate for our excessive energy consumption by buying “Carbon Offsets.” In order to become “carbon-neutral” and guilt-free, my suggested donation is $670.50 annually. If only all my sins could be atoned for so simply!
For a generic carbon footprint calculator that works in all regions of the country, see http://www.carbonfootprint.com.
Omar's Blog 
February 11, 2008 at 6:08 pm |
There are a lot of these calculators. They all seem to give different answers.
I don’t buy a lot of the so called Carbon Offset programs! Many are bogus.
I also think that there is a political agenda with many of these groups. for instance, non of these calculators take into account the amount of carbon that is stored in a 4000 sq foot house. Wood construction homes are a GREAT place to store carbon!!!! Harvesting trees and making wood products is probably the single best way of sequestering carbon out of the atmosphere. But it is politically incorrect among environmental groups to suggest such things.
We like to take a more open minded approach. Check out blog if you are interested in this topic.
http://ecopreservationsociety.wordpress.com
Thanks for the post. There needs to be more attention and discussion of this topic!!!!!!!