The Zero-Emissions Challenge, Part 7: Tallying It Up
Having calculated the CO2 emissions of all our activities as best we could, the next step was to tally them up. That was an eye-opener. We've tried to reduce our emissions through small steps of energy conservation and recycling. We had no idea how much we still produced! Here are our totals for current usage, as well as the expected totals we could achieve through the two levels of reduction.
| Annual Lbs of CO2 | Current Usage |
"Easy" Method |
"Planned" Method |
Technology Cost |
| Electricity | 6,570 | 4,380 | 0 | $40,000 |
| Heating | 21,868 | 1,500 | 260 | $5,500 |
| Propane Appliances | 1,950 | 1,755 | 975 | $8,300 |
| Transportation | 12,232 | 4,224 | 3,146 | $26,000 |
| Air Travel | 5,940 | 1,980 | 1,980 | |
| Other Sources (est) | 1,500 | 1,200 | 1,200 | |
| TOTAL | 50,060 | 15,039 | 7,561 | $79,800 |
| % Reduction | 70% | 85% | ||
| Trees to Absorb | 1,669 | 502 | 252 |
Keeping in mind that the Kyoto protocol allows 11,000 pounds of CO2 per person annually, that allows my wife and I only 22,000 pounds per year. Our current usage is more than twice that!!!
The good new is that by making simple and relatively inexpensive changes to our lives, we could reduce our current levels of emission by 70%, bringing us well within the Kyoto limits. By planting (or causing to be planted) just over 500 trees, we could offset those emissions, bringing our net carbon impact to zero. That's a reasonable scenario.
The next level of reduction, using the technology currently available, would bring us well below the limit— and closer to the goal of zero emissions. But it would cost almost $80,000. That's more than double our annual income, and over $10 per annual pound of CO2 eliminated. The message here is, technology does not currently provide cost-effective means to reduce our emissions. Reductions must come from conservation.
But planting trees to reforest land is something we can do cost-effectively. In fact, we like tree planting so much that for holidays, birthdays, memorials, etc. we already pay for the Arbor Day Foundation to plant trees in people's names. We think it's a nicer gift than a chachki they don't need anyway.
Tree planting is not the ultimate answer to global climate change— it's certainly not a license to use as much dirty energy as we want. For one thing, there's a limited amount of land that can be reforested. But in conjuction with reduction and shifting to renewable energy, it can be a responsible way to reduce our emissions as we seek cost-effective technology (and the funds to install it) that will bring us closer to zero emissions.
This entry was updated on September 19, 2007 to include corrections to electical usage.
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