A bad reputation "Carrier Bags are they that bad"

With so much heated debate about the carbon footprint of things, it would be easy to feel guilty about everything or just to give up caring. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is seen as a key way to reduce climate change by a number of experts, but calculating carbon footprints can be hideously complicated.
However, with a few provisos, we can actually afford to chill out about certain so-called "environmental nasties", which aren't as bad as many of us might think. The figures don't need to be too precise before people can start making sensible, carbon-savvy choices. Even quite a basic understanding can lead to surprising conclusions.
1. Plastic bags really are nasty in so many ways - we use too many, they litter our streets and cause problems for wildlife. However, if you do end up walking home from the shops with a couple of carrier bags, the chances are only about 1,000th of the carbon footprint is in the carrier bags - 10g carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) - and the rest is in the shopping.
2. Using electric hand driers beats reusable towels because it avoids laundry and comes in at three to 20g CO2e per go. The Dyson Airblade is best because it doesn't heat the air. The footprint pays its way by reducing the burden on health services - fewer germs usually mean less illness. The real story here, though, is that if you drive or fly you should forget the hand drying and save your effort for something more significant.
3. At a mere 20g CO2e for a mug of boiled water from the kettle, we don't need to cut back on the luxury of hot drinks. The simple efficiency of only boiling what you need makes life better, not worse, because you get your tea quicker. The shock is that adding milk at least doubles the footprint of a cup of tea, but if this helps to make your life feel worth living, you can enjoy it without guilt.
4. New Zealand apples may come from the other side of the world, but they are still fine as low carbon food - and healthy too. The point is they travel on a boat which is around 100 times better than a plane. A New Zealand apple eaten in the UK comes in at around 100g CO2e. The same good news story goes for oranges and bananas. Of course, local, in-season apples are even better.

A 'lower carbon leisure activity'

5. Watching TV turns out to be one of the lower carbon leisure activities. No driving involved. Even an hour in front of a 42-inch plasma screen works out similar to about a one-mile drive in a very efficient car - 220g CO2e. A smaller screen is even better; watching a 15-inch LCD for an hour comes in at 34g. If you watch as a family or invite your mates round, it's even better still. The Royle family has a fine low carbon lifestyle.
6. A typical book comes in at just 1kg CO2e - the same footprint as driving just two miles in a fairly efficient car. Although it takes a lot of energy to make paper, a good holiday read will pin you down for hours, distracting you from all the more carbon-intensive pastimes you might otherwise be indulging in - especially any that involve driving. Ideally, pass it on when you are finished.
7. Drinking a fine bottle of wine comes in at around 1kg CO2e, even if you get through three per week - which is pushing the limits of a healthy lifestyle. The impact will be about 1% of a typical UK person's annual carbon footprint of 15 tonnes. To cut this in half without compromise to quality, buy it in a carton - decant into a jug if the ugliness offends. Wine is heavy to transport, so British or French are better than Australian or Californian.
8. Getting cremated is likely to be less than a 10,000th of your life's carbon footprint, at 80kg CO2e. On this one occasion you can treat yourself to whatever form of disposal you prefer, safe in the knowledge that you have already done the most carbon-friendly thing possible.

Carbon alarm bells ringing?

9. A year off travelling would normally send carbon alarm bells ringing. But it isn't necessarily so bad, assuming it involves travelling in the way I understand it - you live on a shoe string, buy only what you need and waste almost nothing because you can't afford to. The big carbon hit is the flying. About 5 tonnes CO2e should get you around the world economy class, stopping off in a few key places. If, on the other hand, you spend the whole year hopping from place to place, never really seeing anywhere, skiing, speed boating and living the high life, things will be very different.
10. Keeping your old car can be a good carbon trade off. A new car has a footprint of between six tonnes (a small Citroen C1) and 35 tonnes ( a Landrover Discovery, say). Making cars for UK drivers has about half the footprint of the fuel they burn. So if your old car is safe and reliable, you mileage isn't too high and it's not a gas guzzling disaster, keeping it is probably the low carbon option. If you feel you need a new status symbol, spend any spare cash on solar panels or a wind turbine. (from Mike Berners-Lee the author of "How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Cost of Everything".)

I read that article too. The problem is that it says "carbon bad, everything else good."

There are many other factors which should be taken into account, such as the pollution caused during manufacture and disposal, the depletion of natural resources etc.

I thought this made sense.......................


God vs. Man


For all of you out there across the globe who have fought so hard to tackle the hideous enemy of our planet, namely carbon emissions, that bogus god you worship named "Climate Change" or "Global Warming", there is some really bad news that will be very painful for you to process. But it is my duty to pass it on to you anyway.



Are you sitting down?



Okay, here's the bombshell. The current volcanic eruption going on in Iceland, since it first started spewing volcanic ash has, to this point, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet. Not only that, this single act of God has added emissions to the earth estimated to be 42 times more than can be corrected by the extreme human regulations proposed for annual reductions. Accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up 'til midnight to finish your kid's "The Green Revolution" science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, going on vacation to a city park instead of Yosemite, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your $1 light bulbs with $10 light bulbs ...well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just the past few weeks.



The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in the past weeks has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, carbon.. And, those hundreds of thousands of jobs you helped move to Asia with expensive emissions demands on businesses... you know, the ones that are creating even more emissions than when they were creating American jobs, well that must seem really worthwhile now.



I'm so sorry. And I do wish that there was some kind of a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud but the fact of the matter is that the brush fire season across the western U.S.A. will start in about two months and those fires will negate your efforts to reduce carbon emissions in our world for the next two years.



So, grab a Coke, give the world a hug, and have a nice day!

Even if we assume only 50% of the above is true it really does put the "raving and ranting doom scenario" into perspective!

I agree - Mother Nature is formidable when she chooses to be :-(