Monday, February 1, 2010

Isramart : Global warming leads to carbon footprint decade

Isramart news:
The first 10 years of the 21st century were recently named “the carbon footprint decade” by Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, who said,

“If global warming continues and we don't address it, history will wonder what were these people thinking? They were given every alarm bell. It's like fire bells going off in a theater and everybody kept sitting and watching the movie.” The description is from the ‘Living on Earth’ (www.loe.org) radio show’s Jan. 8 program.

Carbon footprint, defined as "the amount of carbon dioxide emitted due to the activities, especially the consumption of fossil fuels, of a particular person, group, etc." was accepted into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2007. Among other vocabulary additions were "carbon neutral" and "greenwashing." These words help define both what we can do to mitigate climate change and the difficulty of coming up with the true costs and an accurate accounting of our energy use.

According to the Oxford University press blog,

“Being carbon neutral involves calculating your total climate-damaging carbon emissions, reducing them where possible, and then balancing your remaining emissions, often by purchasing a carbon offset: paying to plant new trees or investing in “green” technologies such as solar and wind power.”

During the past decade, as the evidence of climate instabilities began to accumulate, the focus began to turn toward measuring your carbon footprint and trying to be carbon neutral. It’s all about balance, a balance between polluting and enhancing the environment, especially in terms of harmful greenhouse gases.

The footprint methodology of the Climate Registry (where nearly 100 companies and public entities are already voluntarily reporting their emissions through climateregistry.org) considers all six of the Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. The carbon footprint is measured in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The carbon dioxide equivalent allows the different greenhouse gases to be compared on a like-for-like basis relative to one unit of CO2. CO2 equivalent is calculated by multiplying the emissions of each of the six greenhouse gases by its 100-year global warming potential.

Most carbon footprint calculations consider data covering some or all of the categories of: fuel usage (e.g. oil and gas use), vehicle usage, electricity usage, travel (e.g., flights, car, motorbike, bus and rail).

Other categories, sometimes characterized as secondary, such as food, fashion, furniture, recycling and recreation.

For travelers, traveling carbon neutral involves calculating the “carbon footprint,” the approximate amount of carbon dioxide produced on flights, road trips or when otherwise burning fossil fuels, and then buying “offsets”—donating money for projects that promise to produce energy without burning fossil fuels or otherwise reduce the production of greenhouse gases.

So, what is a carbon offset? Carbon offsets are gaining prominence as a tool to compensate for emissions. By paying someone else to absorb or avoid the release of a ton of CO2 elsewhere, the purchaser of a carbon offset can aim to compensate for (or “offset”) their own emissions by funding an equivalent carbon dioxide saving somewhere else.

This is possible because climate change is a non-localized problem; greenhouse gases spread evenly throughout the atmosphere, so either generating them or reducing them anywhere contributes to overall climate. However, it can be difficult to assure that carbon offsets purchased actually compensate for emissions generated. The voluntary offset market has been particularly criticized for its lack of transparency, quality assurance and third-party standards.

What might be our response to the carbon footprint decade? Perhaps it will be the carbon offset decade, where people get into supporting green energy alternatives. Green and alternative ways to produce energy is a focus of many government programs being developed in 2010. We should all find ways to support this transformation. But, the bottom line is that individuals and organizations can most effectively lower their own carbon footprints by improving energy efficiency (e.g. in their homes, offices, or factories), relying on lower-emission products (e.g. buying locally grown food), and changing consumption patterns (e.g. home size, car and travel choices).