I hesitate to wade into these waters, being at heart a homebody and small-picture guy, but you can't hold a drink at a party without hearing something about our "carbon footprint," whether too large, shrinking, uncritically consumptive or just right. Because some of you trust me to put you in touch with global issues that may come to your front door soon in the form of new laws, new products or new expenses, I'll do a slight intro and invite your questions in forum style if you wish, or more discreetly.
The buzzword "carbon footprint" refers in general terms to your personal accountability for a portion of the climate-changing gases released daily into the air. The idea relates first to raw consumption of resources (electric power, fuels used for heating and transportation, and goods and services purchased, including their packaging and the environmental cost of making and delivering them). If you consume one hundred dollars worth of electric power in a month, and that power comes from a coal-burning (half of the U.S. market) or wood-burning (a bit in the American Northwest, but more in Scandinavia and northern Europe) power plant, you are responsible for a fraction of the environmental impact of that plant's smoke, chemical emissions, water usage and CARBON DIOXIDE RELEASE. If your local grid receives its power mostly from a nuke station, you are tagged for a fraction of the much smaller environmental impact of that plant. The issue of nuke waste and incidental (oops, no fishing here for a bit) release of pollution does not yet enter into the calculation. Nuke plants come up generally roses on carbon footprint issues.
If your house consumes fuel for heat and hot water, those factors go into the hopper on your carbon footprint. Fuel oil? Emits considerable CARBON DIOXIDE, dissolved sulfur, soot and ash particles and a truly manky odor if you have ground-level exhaust. Natural gas or Liquefied Petroleum (LP) gas? Much less sulfur, soot and ash, and 40% less carbon dioxide. Almost odorless, but beware the traces of deadly CO. Cost differential? Measurable, but that's not today's topic.
What goes out of your house monthly in the way of garbage, and how is it disposed of? Lots of styrofoam and dense plastic containers? That runs your score up: foam and plastics are difficult to dispose of without environmental consequences, even if they're recycled. Think in terms of a red mark on your score for every take-out meal, except for those wonderful, leaky cardboard containers from the takee-outee. They're not so bad at all. And a pizza box, apart from the grease that burns like biodiesel because it actually is like biodiesel, is only a peccadillo. Newspapers? You should be reading them, certainly, but online. Magazines? The coated paper is environmentally expensive, and again, you can usually subscribe online and still get the hot models and cool graphics. Junk mail? It's hard to win at that game, but you can request to receive sale bulletins online, and then unsubscribe if you're tired of them. There has to be a link at the bottom for you to opt out: it's a law, and most decent companies obey it.
Raw garbage is a delicate subject. Where does it go? Who would even ask? It just can't go away fast enough, most folks think. In my area it goes to an incinerator. More CARBON DIOXIDE, chemical emissions and waste heat going up to the sky. It's a "green" incinerator, whatever that means, but burning is burning. And the emissions go on my tab, is the point. I'm responsible, in this brave new world, for the disposal of my stuff. If you see that truck take your junk away, you have to admit to yourself that it goes somewhere. Check it out. Call town hall. If you are told that your refuse goes to an "energy recovery" recycling plant where waste is converted to methane and burned cleanly to generate power, give yourself a small Poopy. That's a statue declaring your high state of awareness and upright behaviors in the environmental area. I haven't actually started giving them out yet. Robert Downey, Jr. will host the awards show.
Enough for one dose. I'm on vacation, and this may have to do until I return to harness next Sunday. We'll do cars, especially my sister's Escalade, another time. For now, think a little, while the tv warms up, about what comes into your house, and what goes out. What comes in, what goes out. In, and out. In, out. OH-- Dancing With the Stars-- you can think about the environment later. Bless you all, it's beautiful on Cape Cod this week. Wish you were all here.
The buzzword "carbon footprint" refers in general terms to your personal accountability for a portion of the climate-changing gases released daily into the air. The idea relates first to raw consumption of resources (electric power, fuels used for heating and transportation, and goods and services purchased, including their packaging and the environmental cost of making and delivering them). If you consume one hundred dollars worth of electric power in a month, and that power comes from a coal-burning (half of the U.S. market) or wood-burning (a bit in the American Northwest, but more in Scandinavia and northern Europe) power plant, you are responsible for a fraction of the environmental impact of that plant's smoke, chemical emissions, water usage and CARBON DIOXIDE RELEASE. If your local grid receives its power mostly from a nuke station, you are tagged for a fraction of the much smaller environmental impact of that plant. The issue of nuke waste and incidental (oops, no fishing here for a bit) release of pollution does not yet enter into the calculation. Nuke plants come up generally roses on carbon footprint issues.
If your house consumes fuel for heat and hot water, those factors go into the hopper on your carbon footprint. Fuel oil? Emits considerable CARBON DIOXIDE, dissolved sulfur, soot and ash particles and a truly manky odor if you have ground-level exhaust. Natural gas or Liquefied Petroleum (LP) gas? Much less sulfur, soot and ash, and 40% less carbon dioxide. Almost odorless, but beware the traces of deadly CO. Cost differential? Measurable, but that's not today's topic.
What goes out of your house monthly in the way of garbage, and how is it disposed of? Lots of styrofoam and dense plastic containers? That runs your score up: foam and plastics are difficult to dispose of without environmental consequences, even if they're recycled. Think in terms of a red mark on your score for every take-out meal, except for those wonderful, leaky cardboard containers from the takee-outee. They're not so bad at all. And a pizza box, apart from the grease that burns like biodiesel because it actually is like biodiesel, is only a peccadillo. Newspapers? You should be reading them, certainly, but online. Magazines? The coated paper is environmentally expensive, and again, you can usually subscribe online and still get the hot models and cool graphics. Junk mail? It's hard to win at that game, but you can request to receive sale bulletins online, and then unsubscribe if you're tired of them. There has to be a link at the bottom for you to opt out: it's a law, and most decent companies obey it.
Raw garbage is a delicate subject. Where does it go? Who would even ask? It just can't go away fast enough, most folks think. In my area it goes to an incinerator. More CARBON DIOXIDE, chemical emissions and waste heat going up to the sky. It's a "green" incinerator, whatever that means, but burning is burning. And the emissions go on my tab, is the point. I'm responsible, in this brave new world, for the disposal of my stuff. If you see that truck take your junk away, you have to admit to yourself that it goes somewhere. Check it out. Call town hall. If you are told that your refuse goes to an "energy recovery" recycling plant where waste is converted to methane and burned cleanly to generate power, give yourself a small Poopy. That's a statue declaring your high state of awareness and upright behaviors in the environmental area. I haven't actually started giving them out yet. Robert Downey, Jr. will host the awards show.
Enough for one dose. I'm on vacation, and this may have to do until I return to harness next Sunday. We'll do cars, especially my sister's Escalade, another time. For now, think a little, while the tv warms up, about what comes into your house, and what goes out. What comes in, what goes out. In, and out. In, out. OH-- Dancing With the Stars-- you can think about the environment later. Bless you all, it's beautiful on Cape Cod this week. Wish you were all here.
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