Random Musings of a Curious Mind: How Big is Your Carbon Footprint?

Today, October 15th, is Blog Action Day, a day when thousands of bloggers, reaching millions of readers, all post about one cause - the Environment. There is no agenda, no required viewpoint. Each writer will post about what is important to them.

There are calculators (BPs is one of my favorites) for determining your personal or household carbon footprint, based on household energy habits and usage, energy-rated appliances, recycling habits, and miles traveled per year. While that is a pretty good indication of how much carbon dioxide you're releasing into the environment, such calculations leave some interesting items out of the equation.

How much meat do you eat?
- The meat industry creates 18% of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in methane from cattle and nitrous oxide from manure. We still eat meat, but much less than we used to and the amount lessens every year.
What types of light bulbs do you use?
- Compact fluorescents (CFLs) use one-fourth the electricity and generate 70% less heat than standard incandescent bulbs. Even as renters, we were able to replace every bulb, but one, with CFLs. Because these bulbs generate more light, I can easily read any size print from the comfort of my recliner, with only the light from one fixture across the room.
- I would also recommend putting lights on dimmer switches whenever possible. For most activities, it may not be necessary to have a lamp turned all the way up, allowing a further reduction in energy usage.
Do you mail your bill payments?
- By paying bills online or through automatic deductions, fewer trees have to die for checks, envelopes, and postage, and less fuel is needed to deliver mail. We don't receive any bills by mail; all of the information is available online. This further reduces the need to fell trees for paper or fuel mail trucks to bring us statements.
Where does your food come from?
- Buying locally grown and produced goods decreases the use of fuels to transport these items from other parts of your country or the world. Additionally, supporting neighborhood farmers and artisans strengthens local economies and offers fresher, healthier products.

Many thanks to Jay and Julie Online.com for many of these ideas. It's nice to know that Mark and I had already adopted many of these ideas for reducing our carbon footprint.