Fiddling while our home burns

[addedentry]

My resolution for 2009 is to reduce my carbon footprint. To make this aim concrete, I'll be monitoring my energy use at The Carbon Account. Even better, you can join in and keep an eye on me, too:

http://thecarbonaccount.com/people/omassey/

As it happens, I've been taking gas and electricity meter readings at imeasure since July. We're relatively

Comments

[mzdt]

excellent news. You may find http://www.carbonrationing.org.uk/ useful if you haven't already found it - even if you don't join a group, there's plenty of useful info & support there, and yes, it's a pain if you're renting...

good luck!

[addedentry]

That's a useful resource, thanks! barnacle and monkeyhands belong to a local CRAG; I don't know whether we're ready for that much external accountability yet, but maybe when we have a year's data...

[footpad]

I've been planning to bite the carbon bullet recently, but procrastinating out of guilt because of my recent transatlantic flights and long car journeys. But I guess a new year's no worse a time than any other. Here goes.

[barnacle]

Anything measured can be more easily managed, even if you're still flying. Frequently the mere act of measurement will make one more careful and hence improve behaviour. And it was certainly a shock to some when thecarbonaccount.com included the most probable multiplicative constant arising from the effect of increased radiative forcing, caused by aviation CO2 being emitted higher up in the atmosphere. Suddenly everything bar the plane flights became mere foothills in their carbon landscape.

Ouch.

[footpad]

Well, ain't that an eye-opener.

Halving the house-and-car footprint that I share with akeela (though he heats, drives and (ahem) bathes a lot more than I do), my carbon footprint is approximately 9.9 tons/year. Of which over half was that flight to California last autumn.

Re: Ouch.

[addedentry]

Time to start sharing baths.

[brightybot]

I think the carbon account uses openid - it certainly used to. And I believe I'm right in saying that means you can use your lj username and password as lj uses openid too. Barnacle can correct me if I'm wrong.

This reminds me that we should really update our readings on the carbon account - haven't done it for ages.

[footpad]

Correct: for example, I use http://footpad.livejournal.com/ as my login name.

[addedentry]

Thanks! I noticed the openID option too late. As an example of why I need to declutter my passwords, I had recently set up a login at claimID which I've already forgotten (but as you say, the LJ login works).

[bluedevi]

That's a nifty little thing. I've signed up. Though it would be nice if it included things like the amount of new stuff you buy and the amount of meat you eat (two things I'm trying to cut down on) - but I suppose that would make it wildly complicated.

I've been thinking that this should be the year I give up short-haul flying - this might encourage me to stick to it.

[barnacle]

It's not so much a complication, than that the data simply isn't there.

I vaguely remember that, to merely do the research, to then be able to come up with the formulae to calculate accurately how much embedded carbon is in a single punnet of strawberries, was estimated at eighteen months for a given team (I think at Oxford). That was about twelve months ago, so maybe in six months' time they can stop with strawberries and start with turnips. What fraction of a tractor's fuel do you include? Have you already calculated the embedded carbon in its spare parts? What's the average embedded carbon in a litre of fertilizer, and how much ground does it cover for a given fertilizer? How well does it improve the food growth, in tonnes per litre of fertilizer, and hence reduce the overall tonne-per-tonne of CO2?

Footprint calculators (as opposed to tracking software like The Carbon Account) do try to take into account lifestyle choices - the WWF calculator uses your lifestyle data in both its initial estimate and its ongoing estimate as you

[barnacle]

Disclaimer: I'm associated with, if not directly involved in, both the WWF project and the Carbon Account.

[jiggery_pokery]

Might secondary glazing be an option, even in a rented house, or would the sort of secondary glazing that you might be able to install be unlikely to repay its costs?

[addedentry]

Whisper it, but we may be the luckiest tenants in the world as our landlady arranged for double glazing to be fitted this summer and still hasn't increased the rent. (j4 mentioned this but only in passing.)

Still cold, though. I think the heat must be going through the roof (along with the bills ha ha). Hurrah for jumpers.