Climate change - what can you do?

[watervole]

I just ran myself through a carbon footprint calculator (it's a pretty crude one, but it doesn't require you to look up many figures).

I then added in one fictitious flight to Australia. That one flight emitted as much CO2 as my gas central heating does in a year.

A fictitious flight to America creates as much CO2 as the average household produces through electricity in a year. (Can't compare with me there as I'm well below the national average on electricity usage)

It's a no-brainer. Fitting low-energy light bulbs is good, but to make a serious impact on your personal carbon footprint, you have to give up overseas flights. Take your holidays in your own country and boost the local economy as an added bonus.

Comments

I think we need to see each other more, not less

[melodyclark.livejournal.com]

There's a net issue in positive gain versus negative effect at play here. Granted, without an environment, all the positive gain in the world is moot, so since I think we should visit other countries more, not less, maybe the answer is some other mode of transportation? One of my own ancestors was born in a ship in the middle of the ocean, between Yorkshire and New York. Old sailing ships might well be a lesson in patience.

Maybe the key is to find another energy source, as someone else suggested.

My niece is hopping the pond for her first trip to our homeland, but that's the only trip abroad in our family. Most of us can't afford international air travel this year and, really, being Yanks it's probably safest for us to just stay at home (barring the stormtroopers coming in and dragging all the liberals away ... if that happens, it was nice knowing you) anyway.

Very little of this speaks to your initial point, but perhaps there is cogency in there somewhere.

Re: I think we need to see each other more, not less

[kerravonsen]

Old sailing ships might well be a lesson in patience.

Unfortunately, they also take so long to get anywhere, that nobody could sail on them until they got their long-service leave, once every ten years...