Living, Driving and Flying the Talk?

The chart below from Dr. MacKay’s book shows regional greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year (tCO2e/y) per person in 2000. In easy to remember approximate terms, Americans emit 24 tCO2e/y per person. Europeans emit half that or 12 tons. The Chinese emit half that or six tons which matches the global average. The Indians emit half that or three tCO2e/y per Indian.

In order to give you some sense of the magnitude of our problem, let’s examine freezing our global GHG emissions today. We currently have 420 parts per million (PPM) CO2e in the atmosphere which would still increase due to the compounding effect year over year as about 1/3 of the CO2 released into the atmosphere remains there for 50 to 100 years. Americans would have to reduce GHG emissions by 75% to reach the six tCO2e/y per person global average.

I calculated my household’s CO2 emissions and I encourage you to calculate yours at the Empowerment Institute’s Low Carbon Diet webpage by selecting “Household CO2 Calculator”, third link from the top in the leftmost column. To what extent can I reduce my household’s emissions by employing awareness, thoughtful behavior and energy efficiency while simultaneously improving the quality of our lives?

Our house is a large, from my perspective, Cape built in 1966. The basement, first floor, and attic have comparable square footage. I resisted the temptation to buildout our attic (a mini CO2 emissions miracle) so the living area in the house is the first floor totaling 2600 square feet. There are three of us here and we have a daughter in college on the west coast. She lives here four months of the year so I have included her as 1/3 of a person in our per person calculation, but I have not included her west coast emissions.

Our 2009 CO2 annual emissions in pounds:

– 3,224 trash (one garbage can or 32 gallons of dry trash per week … all food scraps go to the compost, goats or chickens … I didn’t count their incoming or outgoing emissions)

– 7,560 electricity (5400 kWh … no ac … attic fan … clothesline … high setting on dehumidifer in the basement was a big item for us over the summer … have lowered the setting for 2010 … no tv in 2010)

– 23,400 natural gas (2000 Therms … forced hot water heating (bedrooms or about 1/3 the house at 50 degrees in winter) … heated often with wood-burning stove … primarily ash trees that are dying all around us … don’t know the CO2 emissions for the wood portion … will heat with wood most of the year in 2010 … considering vertical geothermal/well … house faces east unfortunately)

– 14,700 2001 bmw 530i (15,000 miles 20 mpg … considering old original Honda Insight … took one out on highway/backroads 50/50 for 1/2 hour and averaged 75 mpg!)

– 11,600 2008 honda civic hybrid (22,500 miles 38 mpg)

– 30,200 one of three roundtrip flights by our daughter and four others by our other family members all to the west coast (roundtrip 5,400 miles). Also, two roundtrips to SC to visit our parents (roundtrip 1,600 miles)

This totals 90,684 pounds. This equals 13.6 tons of CO2/y per family member (3 1/3 people) or 17.7 tCO2e/y using a crude 1.3 ratio of 34 gigatons (Gt) of CO2e/y over 26 GtCO2/y emitted worldwide into the atmosphere from human activity. My goal for 2010 is a 20% reduction to 14.2 tCO2e/y per family member in pursuit of the global average of six tCO2e/y per person. We will also have to address our GHG emissions increase per person caused by our gradual transition to a two person household.

Unfortunately this CO2e emissions total does not include the emissions from our food and product purchases as well as other public infrastructure, transportation and buildings. It’s important to note that much of India and China’s industrial CO2e/y is emitted due to their manufacture of products for Americans and Europeans.