Becoming Carbon Neutral

 

Among other New Year's resolutions I've made this year, I've resolved that in 2008 I'll become carbon neutral!

One option is to:

• Stop driving (i.e. walk to work - which is actually easy when you live 500m from the office)
• Fly less (I'll be glad to stay in SF for some time actually)
• And turn off the TV (US cable TV is full of commercials anyway)

But then again... (from previous experience with New Year's resolutions) I'm not sure I'll be able to sustain this.

So there's another option:

A quick visit to the carbon offset calculator - Where one can pay for each pound of carbon created, which goes towards a carbon offset project (i.e. tree planting, renewable energy plant, energy conservation, etc). So basically - you pay for someone else to do the work for you (an option I've always favored).

A simple calculation of my usage, resulted in the following:

 

$614 (!)

Then again... (from previous experience with New Year's resolutions) - I'm not sure I'll be able to sustain this method as well...

So what's the conclusion?

I think both methods are great - but both don't really work (they are good for creating marketing hype, such as the one going on all around us).

I don't subscribe to the view that people will need to change their lifestyle (or pay up) in order to save the environment. Its just not sustainable (like New Year's Resolutions), and not scalable to the mass population.

Not to mention that consumer usage behavior is not the main component of the problem (see on the right an interesting graph on this topic)

I think the consumer side of the equation will be solved only through technologies & solutions that are environmentally friendly, yet do not compromise quality of life, and most importantly, are at cost parity with existing solutions.

 

 

Technorati Tags: Carbon, offset, neutral, New Year, Resolutions, carbon calculator

Comments

[Danny Levine]

While I agree with most of your comments, I do think you are being a bit of a pessimist. There is something to be said for small efforts, and the saying that every little bit helps, especially in the current situation where we are so close to reaching the tipping point.

[Neil T]

I agree with Danny, the small efforts really do add up. Here is a list of great, mostly small, ideas that can add up to reducing tons of CO2/year: recommendations. There are also many great "sustainability challenges" which are all small time-limited efforts: challenges

I think the small efforts are the best, and most motivational, options.