>Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:55:57 -0700 >From: Misha Gale-Sinex <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Carbon emissions calculators >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Howdy, all-- > >I was unable to access a "carbon footprint calculator" at the link >Carl shared: > >><http://www.greenbuildingss.com>www.greenbuildingss.com > >Carl, if you're talking about "validity" in the general sense, as, >"How do I know which of these tools is worth the pixels killed to >bring them to my monitor?"--see if the following is of any help. I >don't claim to be an expert, but I've seen and used a lot of these >things in the six years we've tried to slash our fossil energy use >and live carbon neutral. > >What I look for in assessing these calculators, and rejecting the >mass of them, is whether profit-seeking or partisanship motivates >the tool. Most are tied to something that someone wants you to >buy--usually products or an offsets program. So what they measure is >framed in that way. Others really are measurement instruments. > >I run our numbers through various tools and see whether I get >similar or consistent results. Then I look at their scripting, if >possible. The spreadsheet types are best in my view, because I can >see the formulas. > >The best of these tools can be hugely useful for getting a handle on >a household's, business's, or enterprise's resource use and >pollution. It's basic accounting. But since it's accounting of >things we've been systematically trained not to think about, >figuring out what assumptions and measurements to make, and change, >can take awhile. > >For starters, let's go to Martindale's: > >Martindale's calculators on-line: weather, meteorology, climatology >http://www.martindalecenter.com/CalculatorsD_Wea.html > >Scroll down to/search for "carbon cycle" and "carbon emission and >atmospheric pollution." > >[Or go batguano and look at their full 23,045 calculators: >http://www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators.html > >Especially their agriculture calculators: >http://www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators1_2_A.html ] > >Bonneville Environmental in Oregon--whose Green Tags program is used >by Puget Sound Energy--has had a swell carbon calculator for about 7 >years: >https://www.greentagsusa.org/GreenTags/calculator_intro.cfm > >It is tied to their offsets program, which plows its revenues into >building new "green power" capacity. From what I've been able to >tell over the past decade (they formed in '98), they are honest >people doing an honest job with useful numbers and approaches. > >The calculator helps you assess the carbon emissions of your >household electricity, heating, car, and plane travel use. This is a >pretty good proxy, I've found, though it does leave out things like >lawn implements/toys, transit use, and so on. But once you have a >handle on the big things, it's easy to account the others on your >own. One of its strong points: you can enter different values at any >point, and see how they convert to emissions. > >This EPA calculator gets at driving and household use of energy, but >doesn't touch flying, the largest component of most US energy >footprints: >http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html > >It also overlooks transit use, and doesn't have a variable for >households like ours, which get half to 3/4 of our electricity from >hydro. That's always hard to tell, since electricity is moved across >the grids on a continental basis. We budget it at 50 percent anyhow. > >The Nature Conservancy's calculator is more thorough, including food >consumption patterns... >http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/ > >...though it goes into all sorts of details as teaching examples, >and those details are grounded in a heavily wasteful American >"lifestyle." > >The NC calculator has variables I question. For example, one of the >food variables is how much organic food the person/household >consumes. I'd like to see the numbers on efficiency before >concluding that, say, those Pavitch monocrop carrots from Mexico are >more "climate friendly" than those from our neighbors' non-organic >metrofarms down the road. They're using David Pimentel's assessment >from his /Bioscience/ piece two years ago. >http://www.nature.org/popups/misc/art20625.html > >And while I think his model/numbers were pretty well thought out, >the average person using the NC calculator is going to see the word >"organic" and think "whatever I buy with that label." > >American Forests' site is not bad: >http://www.americanforests.org/resources/ccc/ > >It covers American consumption vectors usually ignored, like >fossil-energy-powered recreational equipment. But truly, the >headline "Rick Steves plants trees to make travelers carbon neutral" >is the sort of thing that makes me nauseous. > >Try the Clearwater Carbon Calculator, a downloadable Excel >spreadsheet; here is the 2005 release: >http://www.clearwater.org/carbon.html > >ClimateCare's site (UK) has a nice simple calculator: >http://www.climatecare.org/ > >It's designed to encourage you to use their offset program, which >may or may not be optimal for you. But they have other calculators >(car, house, etc.) as well. > >Resurgence (UK) has an outstanding calculator that really gets down >to brass tacks on travel and fuel...but requires inputs that you'll >need to standardize/convert from US measures: >http://www.resurgence.org/carboncalculator/ > >In my other message (ag calculators) is a list of conversion factors >and tools you can find online to make those conversions. It's not >hard, and once you get in the right frame of mind, it's very >soothing and meditative. Resurgence's method is close to the one we >use in this household, which we cobbled together in the early '00s >out of a variety of sources, mostly in the UK, NZ, and Australia. > >I like this Finnish site, whose tool translates jet travel into >other concrete things like ecosystem and food system impacts: >http://www.dontfly.org/ > >You can search further on > >carbon calculator >carbon offset >emissions calculator > >or similar terms. There are many more tools out there now than ever >before. If you're concerned about one set of impacts--such as the >resource gluttony of jet travel--you can add that to your search >terms (flying, plane, jet, and so forth). > > >peace >mish > >******************************************************** >To unsubscribe from SANET-MG: >1- Visit http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html to unsubscribe or; >2- Send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> from the address subscribed >to the list. Type "unsubscribe sanet-mg" in the body of the message. > >Visit the SANET-MG archives at: http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html. >Questions? Visit http://www.sare.org/about/sanetFAQ.htm. >For more information on grants and other resources available through >the SARE program, please visit http://www.sare.org.
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