What is my Carbon Footprint? Part 2

I mentioned in my previous post that my other favorite carbon footprint calculator is found in the Global Footprint Network. I would like to make a correction. Their calculator measures ecological footprint which includes carbon footprint as a subset of the total ecological footprint.

Determining your footprint in this calculator is a pleasantly enjoyable experience because of the pictures and graphics. You begin answering the quiz by customizing your avatar and see it move across the screen as the background fills-up with graphics as questions are answered.

my avatar walking on an empty lot before the quiz

In the calculator, the questions are on different categories – from food to transportation.

In some questions, you have the option to provide basic or detailed answers. For example for the question, “How often do you eat animal-based products?”, your answer can be based on animal products as a whole or you can provide answers per animal product type such as beef, poultry, pork, etc.

sample question on the food category (you can either provide basic or detailed information)

Other questions are straightforward – “How many persons live in your household”, “What is the structure of your house” – very similar to the questions from other carbon footprint calculators.

Here’s what the calculator looks like after I completed the quiz.

quiz completion (with added background per type of answer)

So after completing the quiz, I found out my carbon footprint is 20 tons of CO2 emitted in a year. I’m not surprised that this number is different from the carbon footprint calculated in Yahoo Green.

This is a concern for the many carbon footprint calculators in the web. Using different calculators may yield different results.

Carbon footprint calculation is not an exact science. Different organizations have different methods of computing carbon footprint. Calculators even have different sets of questions to come up with the footprint.

I personally think that, regardless of the difference, it is important to begin with a figure. It helps me discover my impact on the environment. Then I can begin to change my lifestyle in little ways and watch the figure decrease as I slowly minimize my carbon emissions. It might not happen immediately but at least I’m helping in whatever way I can.

What is my Carbon Footprint? Part 1

Ok. So I want to help in the fight against global warming. Where do I start?

I scoured various green books and various green sites and determined that in order to know what I should do to help the planet, I should first identify how much I’m impacting the planet with my current lifestyle. This is where the carbon footprint calculator comes in.

As defined by Wikipedia, a carbon footprint is the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product. The carbon footprint calculator will help me answer the question, “How much greenhouse gas (specifically carbon dioxide – CO2) released in the atmosphere is caused by me?”

There are many calculators in the internet. Some calculators are very specific. It will ask for the actual electricity consumption of your house for a specific period. You’ll need to input the fuel efficiency of your car or the exact details of your plane flights including the distance traveled. Other calculators just ask for an overview or an estimate, like how many rooms there are in your house, how many cars you drive and the average distance driven per year.

Since I’m not one who knows the nitty-gritty details of my lifestyle, I prefer the second set of calculators. I specifically like the calculators in Yahoo (http://green.yahoo.com/calculator) and the Global Footprint Network (http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/).

The Yahoo Green carbon footprint calculator is very simple. You have the option to calculate your individual carbon footprint or the entire household’s. There are three categories that will need your input on: your home, your automobile, and your plane trips.

In the home category, you’ll need to enter the type of building you live in, the number of bedrooms in your house, the number of people residing there, and the state you live in. Unfortunately, the available choices for state are all in the US. I just randomly chose a state here even if I’m not from the US.

In the road category, you’ll need to specify if you drive a car or not. If you do drive one, you’ll need to select the type of car you’re driving and the average distance traveled per year. You can add additional cars if you own more than one.

In the plane trip category, you’ll need to specify if you fly or not. If you fly, you’ll need to input the average number of short, medium and overseas place trips you take in a year.

And that’s it! Click on the “Calculate My Carbon” button and you have your carbon footprint. So my carbon footprint is….. 10.2 tons of CO2 emitted in a year? Are you kidding me? My carbon footprint is even greater than the 9.44 tons a year for the average American! Sigh, at least I have a number to begin working with.

I’ll feature the Global Footprint Network calculator in my next post.

Greenesis: A Green Beginning

I've seen Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. I've seen Leonardo Di Caprio's The 11th Hour. I've seen the episodes on National Geographic and the Discovery Channel on climate change, on living green, and on green solutions . CNN, the BBC, and other news channels have allotted segments on their news on the environment as well.

With the amount of media exposure on global climate change and the environment, we should be alarmed at the state of our planet and the state of our future and our children's future if we continue on this spiral towards environmental degradation.

Yes, most of us are certainly alarmed. Yet are we concerned enough to revise our lifestyles and make difficult decisions to help save the environment?

I admit I am one of the those who know the peril our planet is in. But I lack the action inspite of this knowledge. I go about my life without care of my impact to the environment.

But now, I've decided not to sit idly by while the environmental time bomb ticks away the seconds to humankind's impending doom. It's time I do something to contribute towards resolving the greatest crisis facing our planet.

Hopefully, by sharing what I can do for the environment, others like me would realize that, individually, we can help in our own way. Collectively, the rewards for us and the next generation will be infinite.

So this is me on my way to a green beginning - a "greenesis". Follow me on this journey and I hope that this will entice you to make your "greenesis" too.

Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.