Carbon Footprint

[paloula]

Hi there all you jumblies,
I've been hearing a lot lately about leaving a 'carbon footprint'.It means the tonnage of carbon we leave behind for the next generation.I went onto the site www.carbonfootprint.com entered my details and almost passed out peacefully when I saw my output.....!!!It was enormous!In fact I was about 5 times the average persons output... I recycle,try to eat local produce,only use electricity in the evening so to speak,compost but it appears Im a huge threat to the environment :( Anyway I then went onto the other site www.mycarbonfootprint.eu which lets you choose small changes that will significally reduce your output - phew - but still not enough for me Im afraid.Short of living in the dark,eating grass from my garden, leaving for work at 2am in the morning so I can walk and get there at 7am,im not sure what else I can do :) Would love to know how others got on?

Paloula - with the giant footprints....

[Chris P]

Originally Posted by paloula

I was about 5 times the average persons output...

Hi paloula,

According to the carbon footprint index, my footprint is a little bit smaller than the average UK citizen's.

Now! The data I entered could well have been entered by St Patrick (such is my monastic lifestyle) -- no car; infrequent use of buses and trains; one short-haul return flight per year; no burning of oil or gas; an electricity bill of around 500 euros per year; infrequent burning of toast etc -- and I'm just below the average!? Anyway, as you say, Paloula, next to eating grass and walking on a treadmill to generate energy, there is little else I could do to reduce my output. Solar panels are an idea but could prove tricky (see pic of my pad below).

By the way, a similar thread was started on JumbleTown a while back. Please see here:
http://www.jumbletown.ie/forums/showthread.php?t=62

Anyone else tried these tests? Feedback please.

Regards
Chris P
Admin

Note: This picture was taken before I got my decking in.

[paloula]

thanks for bumping this Chris.....I'm thinking maybe people are afraid to know what size their footprint is... :) your reply had me laughing out loud....
paloula

[Patience]

I'm not sure how accurate that site was. The first time I was as truthful as could be and keyed in everything I use. I ended up using less than the average citizen. Wahayyy!!!! But then I went back and keyed in oil alone - nothing else, and got only marginally less. The moral of that story (in keeping with the monastic lifestyle set by the admin) is that man cannot live on......er.........oil alone.

[kagy]

Just calculated mine, 7.8ton compared to 10.9ton CO2. But we have to remember 2 things.

1. In the UK 20% of all elec comes from nuclear power, CO2 free
2. in Ireland we burn Peat, which is worse than coal for CO2 emmissions

Not that I'm in favour of Nuclear power, just saying that our footprint may be higher than calculated just because of the way we generate elec. :-(

But the good news is that I can offset my households footprint by planting 8 trees and I plan to plant over 100 at the start of the next season. So if anyone wants to purchase carbon credits....

Kagy

I would be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered

[Mimi1]

I went in on that too and ended up being way under the uk average. Well pleased I can tell you. But I don't use public transport, I don't drive and don't fly very regularly either (sounds like I never leave the house). As I say, just like Spike almost monastic lifestyle but then when they did the secondary emissions I only came out just below the national average but the calculations weren't based on anything I entered so it's not entirely accurate. So don't worry too much about it. It was interesting though - thanks for the link.