Newsletters: March - April 2007

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You Can Become Carbon Neutral

By Linda Miklowitz

Drive a car or motorcycle or boat? Take an airplane flight? Heat or cool your home? Use electricity? It's hard to live in the world and not emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. They settle in the upper atmosphere like an insulation blanket and hold in heat.

Most people emit about 15 tons of CO2 per year. The U.S., with five percent of the world's population, produces 25 percent of the world's carbon emissions in this way:

• An average-sized house emits about 11 tons (.75 tons per 1,000 kwh of electricity) per year,
• An average car produces five tons (at 1 ton per 100 gallons of gas, 30 mpg into 15,000 miles per year)
• An average round-trip plane flight produces 1.7 tons (EPA calculates 1.08 pounds per person for each air mile; FAA calculates average domestic flights at 1,660 miles, double for international travel).

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol provided a 5.4-ton carbon "allowance" for each citizen. Our share reflects that about one-third of per capita carbon emissions comes from household uses like travel and electricity. The other two-thirds comes from businesses and industries that supply goods and services.

One cross-country round trip of 3,000 miles each way alone would emit three tons of carbon per passenger. Some scientists believe it would take a limit of 2.35 tons per person to control global warming.

The earth has warmed between 5 and 9 degrees F since the last Ice Age. Most climate models predict that a doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentrations would raise global mean temperature from 3 to 8 degrees.

Natural sources emit 150 billion tons of carbon and absorb 154 billion tons. The 7.1 billion tons that humans add to the annual emissions is enough to tip the balance. Pre-industrial atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide were about 278 parts per million. Current concentrations are 356 parts per million. The most restrictive goals call for stabilizing concentrations at 450 parts per million.

But there are ways to make amends so you don't suffer the guilt. You can offset roughly one ton of CO2 emissions for a tax-deductible contribution of $11 for yourself or as a gift. The concept also makes the point that wherever we do something on Earth, for the good or bad, everyone feels it. The money goes to plant forests to consume carbon dioxide, to install high-efficiency heating and cooling in schools to reduce future energy use, and for wind-power projects. An average acre of fully stocked forest will remove 3.6 tons of carbon dioxide per acre per year. An average tree will remove 1/40 ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over a 40-year period.

The Better World Club, an environmental alternative to AAA, makes a donation to the Tides Foundation for carbon abatement for each flight it books and will accept donations. Better World Insurance will offset the first ton of greenhouse gas emissions of the cars it insures ($11). Better World Club devotes one percent of all revenues, a larger amount than profit, to neutralize carbon emissions associated with global warming.

For more information please visit these websites: http://www.betterworldclub.com/links/offsets.htm

Carbon fund.org at https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=6401

You can calculate your personal carbon emissions on various sites. Links to them are collected at http://www.earthfuture.com/climate/calculators/

Another helpful site: www.carboncounter.org