An excerpt from and analysis of the handout given at the end of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth
Ten Things You Can Do
Want to do something to help stop global warming? Here are 10 simple things you can do and how much carbon dioxide you'll save doing them.
Change a light: Replacing one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Analysis: We made up the figure of 50 light bulbs per household (by counting the number in our house, which seems pretty typical of houses around here). 50x150=7500 lbs carbon dioxide per household. Multiply by 105,480,101 households (2000 Census http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_DP1&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U) this comes to 395,550,378 tons of carbon dioxide (using short tons, not metric tons here)
Drive less: Walk, bike, carpool, or take mass transit more often. You'll save one pound of carbon dioxide for every mile you don't drive.
Analysis: We figured a 50% reduction in driving. Annual miles driven is 2.3 trillion (https://www.worldwatch.org/node/99) Half of that is 1.15 trillion miles, which translates into 1.15 trillion pounds, or 575,000,000 tons of CO2 saved.
Recycle more: You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.
Analysis: 2,400 pounds for 105,480,101 households comes out to 126,576,121 tons of CO2 per year savings.
Check your tires: Keeping your tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Analysis: Total US Fuel Consumption (in 2002 http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004727.html) is 167,730,000,000 gallons. Five percent savings would come out to 8,386,500,000 gallons. At 20 pounds per gallon it comes out to 83,865,000 tons of CO2 saved.
Use less hot water: It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of CO2 saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year).
Analysis: We figured two low flow showerheads per household and multiplied the clothes washing number by 2.59 (average household size 2000 Census) to get a figure of 1995 pounds of CO2 saved per household. Multiplied by the number of households (above) results in 105,216,400 tons of CO2 saved.
Avoid products with a lot of packaging: You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.
Analysis: 1,200 pounds per household comes to 63,288,060 tons of CO2 saved.
Adjust your thermostat: Moving your thermostat down just 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Analysis: 2,000 pounds per household comes to 105,480,101 tons of CO2 saved.
Plant a tree: A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.
Analysis: Using a 40-year average lifespan for a tree (http://www.friendsoftrees.org/tree_resources/facts.php), we figured that each tree would save 50 pounds of CO2 per year. If each person in the US (299,084,893 US Census Bureau Population Clock http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html) plants one tree, that results in 7,477,122 tons of CO2 saved (temporarily sequestered) per year.
Be a part of the solution: Learn more and get active at ClimateCrisis.net.
Analysis: We didn't figure any particular carbon savings coming from visiting this website.
Summation:
Total carbon dioxide savings if every person in the US does all of these things: 1,462,453,182 tons.
Total annual CO2 emissions in the US (2004 figures http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/UniqueKeyLookup/RAMR6P5M5M/$File/06FastFacts.pdf ) (converted from metric tons) is 6,600,572,400 short tons.
Total carbon dioxide savings represents 22.2% of the total. If every man, woman, and child in the US made all of the behavioral changes listed above, the total CO2 saved in a year would represent 22.2% of the total. This is just for CO2. Other greenhouse gases are not included in this calculation.
Now...here's the extra credit problem: What is the current yearly percent increase in US CO2 emissions? How many years of growth would it take at this level to wipe out (in absolute terms) the savings calculated above?
Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?
*** the above was copied from a listserv I belong to.
Interpretation: There isn't a "safe" solution. The problems are systemic. If we want to end global warming, we've got to bring down the system.
Wasting time..
2 months ago
4 comments:
I’m glad to see you’re writing again, Shane. It’s encouraging to hear from someone who not only cares, but cares enough to express concern. As an evolutionist I appreciate your anger and frustration at our inability to really do anything to remedy a situation along with the natural consequence of saying, “The hell with everything. Let’s start over.” If only we could, but of course we can’t. There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with people; not just with some, but with all of us.
From my obviously biased view as an evolutionist that something is the very thing which has kept us alive so long and evolved us into the human species we are. It is absolutely necessary that we (the world as a community and we as individuals) channel our will to survive (morphed into our determination to dominate) into behavior that contributes to our long term survival as well as our immediate needs. At the moment we do not seem to be doing very well.
You are right. There is no “safe” solution. I fear there is no solution at all. Our habitat is changing, soon if not already changed, beyond our control. It will eventually (quite soon in fact), hopefully not inevitably, cease to sustain us. If we cannot change (as a world community and as individuals, and like you seem to believe and as I also suspect, it must be as individuals) in a very short period of time, we will quite justifiably be exterminated just as any other parasitic viral infection is when it succeeds in destroying that which sustains its continued existence. In that case we can be thankful that we did not infest other life sustaining planets ultimately to destroy them also,
Should we survive to the point of actually reaching and colonizing other planets, we can only hope that this immediate threat to our present habitat has made us more symbiotic than parasitic; perhaps even beneficial to our environment--=giving more than we get.
That is probably too much to hope for, but one can dream. All you and I can hope to de is to continue writing---pointing out problems, offering suggestions, perhaps inspiring; maybe even changing those around us into more caring, empathetic beings willing to sacrifice some comfort and convenience to move the world toward a more livable place than the hostile environment it is now becoming.
It is always educational and inspiring to read your contributions, Shane. I wish you wrote more often. I look forward reading to your posts.
I’m glad to see you’re writing again, Shane. It’s encouraging to hear from someone who not only cares, but cares enough to express concern. As an evolutionist I appreciate your anger and frustration at our inability to really do anything to remedy a situation along with the natural consequence of saying, “The hell with everything. Let’s start over.” If only we could, but of course we can’t. There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with people; not just with some, but with all of us.
From my obviously biased view as an evolutionist that something is the very thing which has kept us alive so long and evolved us into the human species we are. It is absolutely necessary that we (the world as a community and we as individuals) channel our will to survive (morphed into our determination to dominate) into behavior that contributes to our long term survival as well as our immediate needs. At the moment we do not seem to be doing very well.
You are right. There is no “safe” solution. I fear there is no solution at all. Our habitat is changing, soon if not already changed, beyond our control. It will eventually (quite soon in fact), hopefully not inevitably, cease to sustain us. If we cannot change (as a world community and as individuals, and like you seem to believe and as I also suspect, it must be as individuals) in a very short period of time, we will quite justifiably be exterminated just as any other parasitic viral infection is when it succeeds in destroying that which sustains its continued existence. In that case we can be thankful that we did not infest other life sustaining planets ultimately to destroy them also,
Should we survive to the point of actually reaching and colonizing other planets, we can only hope that this immediate threat to our present habitat has made us more symbiotic than parasitic; perhaps even beneficial to our environment--=giving more than we get.
That is probably too much to hope for, but one can dream. All you and I can hope to de is to continue writing---pointing out problems, offering suggestions, perhaps inspiring; maybe even changing those around us into more caring, empathetic beings willing to sacrifice some comfort and convenience to move the world toward a more livable place than the hostile environment it is now becoming.
It is always educational and inspiring to read your contributions, Shane. I wish you wrote more often. I look forward reading to your posts.
Hi Paul. Thanks for the remarks. It's good to hear from you again (and encouraging). I've got a lot going on in my personal life right now, so I haven't been doing much blogging. Nothing serious. But much of what I'd like to write about concerns people who read my blog, so.....
Have you heard about Stephen Hawking's question: how can human life be sustained another 1000 years? He thinks we need to jump ship and go to another planet. But, like you suggested, why should we bring our cancer to the rest of the universe?
Still, I don't think behavioral choices can be explained away by evolution, especially when you consider the vast differences in behavior that exist from culture to culture. I do believe we can change, but it has to be a systemic change--a kind of revolution we've no precedent for. You might be right that there isn't any solution, but I would rather try to change and fail than do nothing. It's definately not easy, though. Sometimes it seems way too overwhelming.
First, I apologize for double sending my last message. I’m not quite sure what I did, but I’ll try not to do it again.
Unprecedented it may well be, Shane, and overwhelming it will certainly be, but revolutionary and earth-shattering it will, hopefully, not be. I admit to being caught up in the concept of evolution and its implications and I am hopeful that though you and I are helpless in instituting change, we can perhaps initiate change in our separate ways by encouraging others to voice whatever concerns they might have and to search for solutions within each of their unique perceptions of how their environment operates and how it affects others and even themselves.
By sharing conclusions and each of us gleaning what seems valuable just to us from these shared conclusions, a workable consensus might be a possibility. Though government can be a nuisance and does often impede such pursuits, it does seem necessary at times to dissuade us from taking advantage of our individual superior strength, skill, intelligence, or charisma to do damage to those less advantaged than ourselves. As an evolutionist I do not see people as being good nor do I see them as being evil. I do see them as being necessarily selfish enough to survive and consequently often cruel, greedy, and selfish beyond necessity unless curtailed by some form of authority.
I don’t see you as being the type of person that fails, Shane, but taking a hopeless situation too much to heart can be detrimental. I have a tendency to take situations far too seriously and often become bogged down in minutiae. Humor helps as does sleep, leisure and often just the passage of time, but the moment can be difficult and unproductive.
I am trying to develop the habit of predicting the future at its worst and, rather than hoping for the best, and looking for fundamental problems to which I may be contributing and fundamental solutions about which I need to make others aware. That may not solve any problems for the world because these fundamental problems are problems I perceive (they may not be problems for anyone else, only me), but it does help me. I feel useful and I may actually be useful, but I can’t afford to waste my years brooding about what I should be doing and am not or cannot do or what others should be doing and are not or cannot be doing.
That could explain why I find your posts so enjoyable. You think and you express your thoughts well. I find that helpful and encouraging.
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