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Going on a Carbon Diet

I decided to try out Slate’s Green Challenge co-sponsored by Treehugger. It’s described as an eight week carbon diet:

For the next eight weeks, Slate, in collaboration with eco-Web site treehugger, invites you to consider your own individual contribution to global warming—and challenges you to go on a carbon diet. The goal is to reduce the amount of CO2 that you put into the atmosphere by 20 percent.

You start with a test that estimates your individual carbon load. I used my car (not the hybrid my wife drives) and came out with a carbon load of 18,274 lbs, which is the equivalent of 1.79 cars. According to the results page for my test, the US average is 44,312 lbs per person so I’m not doing too bad there. I guess it helps to already be aware of some of these things.

Each week for the next eight weeks, I’ll log in and make a series of ‘pledges’ to do things that will reduce the carbon load in a specific area. This week it’s transportation. I will keep my tires inflated, make sure the air filter in the car is clean once a month, and drive 25 fewer miles per month by combining errands. I also realized that I can save 10 miles per week by taking an alternate route to work. If I do these things, I can supposedly take the equivalent of .25 cars off the road.

I could take more had I been willing to ride trains (Nope. I live in Texas.), carpool (with whom?), purchase carbon offsets (not sure I trust that one), and buy a hybrid in the next six months. The hybrid would be nice – we love ours – but reality is reality and greyhounds are big dogs and I need something that can haul them all. I’ve got a Honda CR-V and it’s great and gets decent mpg, but I’ll probably wait on the hybrid until hybrid CR-Vs come along. Honda sales people say it’ll be in a year or two.

Here are some other transportation things you can do courtesy of Slate:

  • Keep your tires properly inflated by checking them regularly when you fill up at the gas station. Environmental Defense notes that 32 million U.S. vehicles ride on at least two under-inflated tires, wasting 500 million gallons of gas each year.
  • Drive 65 miles per hour instead of 75. This increases fuel efficiency by 15 percent, thereby reducing emissions. And speeding tickets.
  • It seems almost too obvious to point out, but idling cars get zero miles per gallon. According to the Department of Energy, no more than 30 seconds of idling is needed to warm up a car, even on cold winter days.
  • Cutting your driving by a few miles each day stops tons of CO2 from entering the air each year. Could you walk or bike to do that nearby errand? Could you carpool or commute by mass transit—even just one day a week?

So, there it is. If I keep my pledges, I will have reduced my carbon load by 14% or 2558 lbs. If my math is right (a large if), I only have to lose 6% more carbon, but I’ll go for as much as I can. Won’t you join me?

Published inRandom Stuff

9 Comments

  1. […] Man, I Sure Go for a Lump of Coal Right Now Well, it’s week two of the Treehugger/Slate carbon diet challenge and so far I’m not jonesing for carbon yet. Looking back on last week’s assignment, I’ve done everything I pledged to do. […]

  2. […] If I keep my pledges on food, such that they are, I will reduce my carbon footprint by 637 lbs or .07 cars. This brings my total reduction to 4995 lbs, which is a 27% decrease in my original carbon footprint. […]

  3. The U.S. deparment of Energy clearly has never lived in Minneapolis. Even if an engine could warm up from -20 degrees in 30 seconds, it takes far longer to get all your windows scraped and defrosted.

    Other than that, I’m all in favor of reducing my carbon footprint.

  4. […] So, this week we spread the gospel and reduced our carbon load by 1178 lbs or .12 cars. This brings the total reduction to 6970 lbs or 38% of my original total of 18274 lbs. Technorati Tags: global warming, environment, climate change, carbon footprint, carbon Posted by James in Green Living Permalink […]

  5. […] And so, this week I take no cars off the road and hold fast at the 32% reduction in my original footprint that I hit last week. Technorati Tags: carbon footprint, environment, climate change, global warming Posted by James in Green Living Permalink […]

  6. […] So, this week we shed some water weight and reduced our carbon load by 911 lbs or .09 cars. This brings the total reduction to 7881 lbs or 43% of my original total of 18274 lbs. […]

  7. […] This brings my total reduction to 8498 lbs (~.89 cars) off of my original footprint of 18274 lbs (~1.83 cars), a 47% reduction to a new total footprint of 9776 lbs, which appears to be less than the equivalent of one car so I’m assuming that the statistical cars used for these calculations must be gas guzzlers because I can’t seen how my footprint could be less than a car since I do, in fact, own a car, and did not plan to purchase any carbon offsets. […]

  8. […] I have reduced 45.95% of the carbon emissions I reported at the start of the challenge, and I’ve actually reduced 343% of the emissions I pledged to cut over the last eight weeks. […]

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