Our Naughty (Greenhouse Gas) Contribution

Why am I doing this? Because I don’t want to be a little old lady, witnessing first hand the fall out of climate change and realizing I did precious little to do anything about it.

I think you feel the same. So we’re going to start small. But in order to start small, I invite you to think big….

What’s your Naughty (Greenhouse Gas) Contribution?

Now that we’re about to begin by doing simple little things around the home and office to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it’s always good to keep the big picture in the back our minds.

I’m stealing the following from Dave Reay, author of Climate Change Begins at Home. According to Dave, the following makes up the average North American’s climate impact:

Cars 40%
Household 36%
Food 12%
Waste 6%
Flights 6%
Office He doesn’t say.

Now obviously this breakdown will differ for everyone. To find out your annual GHG contribution, click on one of the various links below. The first one is the Canadian government’s One Tonne Challenge. Now you don’t have to be a Canadian to try it, eh? So I encourage my friends in the States, Mexico, UK and everywhere else for that matter to try it as well. I’ve also included two GHG calculators from the States.

Dave seems to think our annual GHG contribution is 20 tonnes. Canada’s One Tonne Challege pegs it at 5 tonnes. Atmosclear says 15, which is probably closer to the mark. Keep in mind that while the One Tonne and US EPA sites covers home and vehicles, they are missing air transportation, meat consumption and new product purchasing. The One Tonne team assures me that they are working on it and I will keep you posted. So check it out, but if you’re a high flying meat eater with a maxed out credit card, you may want to add a few more tonnes to your greenhouse contribution….

One Tonne Challenge

US Environmental Protection Agency

Atmosclear Climate Club


Next week: LIGHTS!

Cheers,
Cheryl

p.s. Good Grief! The Election!!!

For my Canadian friends: find out what parties say they plan to do for the environment… Sierra Club of Canada Election Survey