Earth Day 2009

Today is Earth day. It may not be a day to go out and celebrate for everyone, but it can be a day to look at your life and see what can be changed.




Reduce/Reuse/Recycle, time to make a plan to practice the 3 'R's?


Help the economy and shop for Energy Star appliances?


Put your home through an Energy Audit?

There are many ways to take care of the planet. With the world the way it is today, it is also a great time to exert control over our actions that will save money. There are many advantages personally and globally to making those changes now.

CO2 Formally Declared a Pollutant

Today in the New York Times:
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday formally declared carbon dioxide and five other heat-trapping gases to be pollutants that threaten public health and welfare, setting in motion a process that for the first time in the United States will regulate the gases blamed for global warming.

What I don't understand is how this can be a defined a pollutant when it is also naturally occurring. There must be a measurement defining a level that has to be reached for CO2 to be a pollutant, but no one is stating what that is or even if they can measure it.

We all want to save energy and keep the planet clean. But I want to see more information about the standards and measurements used to make declarations like this. It just doesn't make sense that we jump from decreases our impact on the planet (good) to a necessary gas for life to function is a pollutant (bad). Huh?

I remember basic earth science studied in school stating CO2 was necessary for life on Earth. Has everyone forgotten this basic lesson?

From Merriam Webster, the definition for carbon dioxide

My Definition of Carbon Footprint

From Economics 101: Every decision we make in life has a cost.

1. Take a drink of soda? The cost can be calories.


2. Try a new shampoo? The cost can be disatisfaction, or a real expense in price change.


3. Ride a bicycle? Increased exhaustion.

These are just examples of how every decision we make daily has a cost.

I mention this because this the thinking necessary to understand the concept of a Carbon Footprint.

I've read some pretty complicated definitions of Carbon Footprint, but many seem to make the eyes cross before even getting to the end. SO many people throw the term around. I have come across more than a few people that admit they really can't define what it means. I'm going to break it down in the way that I understand Carbon Footprint to work.

A Carbon Footprint is the affect of every decision we make in regards to the environment. What is the cost to the environment for transportation, home heating, our choice of groceries, etc?

Break it down a bit more....

There are two types of Carbon Footprint: Primary and Secondary

Primary is a direct cost to the environment: Driving a vehicle with a combustion engine emits exhaust to the atmosphere causing an increase in greenhouse gas.

Secondary is an indirect cost to the environment: When buying imported groceries, the additional transport requirement increases greenhouse gas.

Every choice we make, be it the regular 'paper or plastic', has a cost to our environment. To make a difference, people have to learn to look at the cost of decisions made every day. The difficulty is there are so many choices we have always taken for granted.

It is going to take time, but I believe knowledge is power. And with knowledge, understanding our habits can make changing our daily choises easier.