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Ask HN: What is my carbon/green gas footprint?

4 points by ed_balls ↗ HN
I've been trying to find a google calculator that would tell me what is my carbon and green gas footprint, but I failed to find one that is accurate and extensive.

- I work from home

- I live in a small one bed flat with my gf (50m^2), no aircon and efficient district heating

- use trams/bikes/electric scooters

- drive 10k miles a year (27 miles per gallon equals 10.5 liters per 100 kilometers)

- eat beef once a month.

- 16 flights a year (2,5h flights on average)

- I buy very little stuff (no TV or any other electronic apart from macbook, phone and a screen)

- my location has a CO2 production of 7.5 tonnes per capita

5 comments

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mchannon
I'm surprised how many people crave some sort of grade or score like an insurance appraisal when it comes to their footprint. I guess so if it's high, they can guilt themselves into reducing it, and if it's low, they can guilt others into reducing theirs (good luck with the second part).

There's also a big "cosmo-quiz" element here, where certain aspects involve a temptation to lie to yourself in order to get the score you feel you "deserve".

If I told you a cross-section of passengers on the RMS Titanic was comparing their relative contributions to the momentum of the ship toward the iceberg, you'd probably gain a different perspective on the question you asked.

A few nits here:

•I work from home

In what country, what kind of industry, and what kind of home? A coal commodities trader in Australia vs. a wind turbine designer in Denmark might make for a huge swing.

•drive 10k miles a year

Bumper-to-bumper or wide open high-speed driving? There's at least a threefold difference in those two numbers, with bumper-to-bumper using far less carbon.

•eat beef once a month

What about chicken? almonds? grapes? corn? Coca-Cola? The relative carbon footprints of each food would be necessary to know. Beef itself has a radically different footprint whether consumed in say, Texas, Brazil, or Japan.

•16 flights a year

On your own personal GulfStream V, or crammed in to full-up Spirit A321's? The former is a huge use of fuel whereas the latter uses fewer gallons of fuel per mile per person than driving an SUV alone.

•I buy little stuff

Wait until you reproduce, move, or your government expands. This is not a place you can commit savings and I think a lot of people struggle to accept this. Further, the stuff you buy can almost be inversely proportional in terms of transportation infrastructure requirements. Someone who gets one small Amazon package a month living on an Alaskan island with millions of dollars of bridge-to-nowhere infrastructure would be far bigger a carbon producer than a shopaholic clothes-horse living on a major Manhattan thoroughfare.

ed_balls
> they can guilt themselves

I dont feel guilty and wanna guilt trip someone. I'm interested in the subject, because there is a lot of false information.

Is buying Tesla really that great? What if I drive very little? Maybe my totals C02 would be low (expensive production of Tesla).

Is beef that bad for C02? I have to grow grass that captures C02.

mchannon
Is buying a Tesla that great for CO2 footprint? No, nor is buying any new car. Over the life of the vehicle, it's pretty close to a wash vs. a similarly-sized new BMW roadster, unless you drive it an awful lot. If buying a Tesla helps Tesla make more batteries more cheaply, and make gasoline a lower-volume commodity, then there's some benefit there.

Beef is bad for CO2 for 3 reasons:

1) getting water (pumping) to the beef or the cropland to feed the beef often causes CO2 to be produced.

2) growing cattle feed is extremely CO2-intensive due to the ammonia-based fertilizers corn uses. Every stalk of corn is producing CO2 because of the way we grow corn.

3) beef's popularity and need for feed means we're repurposing rainforest and releasing eons of poorly-sequestered carbon. It's a one-time hit, and then after that the damage is minimal, but it's a big one-time hit.

If you go strictly grass-fed beef, I suppose you could argue you're not producing as much CO2, but substitute CO2-intense beef would get that much cheaper in price, negating most of the benefit.

saluki
Sounds like you have a minimal foot print other than maybe the flights but still below average.

Instead of spending time calculating your foot print so precisely:

Volunteer more in your community

Help elderly neighbors

Stay in closer contact with family and friends, visit them more (even if you fly)

Exercise more

Get out and enjoy nature

Get out and see the sights in your area

Sounds like you have a good general idea of what will reduce your carbon footprint, nice work.

Now focus on what your footprint on life will be, focus on helping others and enjoying life.

shoo
the late David MacKay's "sustainable energy, without hot air" book about sustainable energy production versus energy consumption will help you roughly estimate your energy consumption. it's not the same thing as a carbon footprint, but it'll be more or less proportional.

https://www.withouthotair.com/c18/page_103.shtml

worth reading the book if you have the time and are interested. it's free online.

From your list the one item that jumps out at me is 16 * 2.5 hour flights per year. i'd guestimate that accounts for 25% or more of your annual energy consumption, and 25% or more of your greenhouse gas emissions. probably roughly similar energy consumption footprint to eating 1 kg of meat / day.

personally i think the main thing people with relatively* high-energy affluent lifestyles can do regarding reducing their personal carbon footprint is to have fewer children than they want to. it's not really a done thing to talk about this, maybe it will be in a decade or two.

* relative in the global sense