http://popsci.typepad.com/popsci/2006/05/its_pretty_easy.html
I am at a 5600, MUCH SMALLER THAN AVERAGE
After going to see Al Gore and the makers of his film, An Inconvenient Truth,speak about the global-warming crisis last week, I was inspired to makesome changes to my own energy-consumption habits. I live in New YorkCity, so I already use public transportation instead of a car, but Ifigure I can do better. Today I visited climatecrisis.organd used the online calculator to figure out how many pounds of carbondioxide my lifestyle is contributing to the atmosphere. I weighed in at5,400 pounds—not terrible compared with the American average of 15,000,but far from the ideal, which would be zero.
Then I visited the Web site for my utilities provider, ConEdison,and discovered (after some digging—they sure aren’t advertisingsustainable-energy programs front and center on their homepage) that Icould enroll in a program called Green Power that would allow me to buyenergy from local wind, solar and low-impact hydroelectric sources(many utility companies have similar programs—check your company’s Website for details) . It will cost only a few extra dollars a month andwill help to cut down on fossil-fuel consumption. That alone will bringmy carbon net down to 4,600 pounds.
Next, I’m planning to sign up for a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program in my neighborhood. Basically, I’ll buy a subscription to a nearby farm,and the farmer will bring me a bag of fresh vegetables every week fromnow till October. This will ensure that most of my food is grownorganically and locally, cutting down on the fossil fuels used to shipfoods from distant destinations.
The final big contributor to my carbon output is air travel. I flyat least eight times a year, and planes are not gas-sippers. There’snot much I can do to increase the fuel-efficiency of 747s, but I canoffset the impact by buying bundles of clean-energycredits—CoolWatts—from nativeenergy.com.Each $2 bundle offsets a ton of carbon dioxide emissions while fundingalternative-energy programs and getting you closer to carbon-neutral.Just one bundle will get me to zero for the year, but maybe I’d betterpurchase a few more to offset the damage done by the gas-guzzlinghoopty I drove during college.Meanwhile, stay tuned for the July issue of PopSci, in which we lay out our 10-point plan for solving the energy crisis…. —Megan Miller