What is your personal impact on the environment? »
Posted by: jcolman 1 year, 4 months ago145 Comments Report this Story
This simple carbon calculator shows you how your daily lifestyle and behaviors affect climate change. It uses real science, it's easy to use, and it helps you make better decisions about how to reduce the impacts from global warming. I got a 32 -- what's your score?
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Comments So Far: 145
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Dharma1 year, 4 months ago
I got a 22 for the family and 7.4 as an individual. Again most of it in food......apparently that is the real kicker for me.
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chiefss1 year, 4 months ago
This is such a bunch of BS. Carbon is not the problem. Carbon is part of every organic compound in the world. Charcol briquetts are carbon, pencil lead is carbon. Humans are carbon, alcohol is carbon, clam shells are carbon, limestone is carbon.Diamonds are PURE carbon. Diamonds would have zero effect on what the screamers call global warming. Carbon is NOT the problem everyone is whining about, Carbon Dioxide is. Carbon Monoxide has carbon, auto tires have carbon, dead frogs have carbon. You can dump carbon all over the earth by the megaton and do nothing but make a mess. Carbon is not the problem, Carbon dioxide is and even that is taken care naturally in a cycle called the Carbon cylcle. Chocolate candy bars are carbon, bugs are carbon, lizards are carbon. milk is carbon. Step on a charcol briquette and you leave a carbon footprint.
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chiefss1 year, 4 months ago
PT Barnum WAS right. You CAN fool some of the people all of the time. The tree hugging libs have convinced millions that they are all going to die from global warming and the earth will be destroyed. Cataclysmic events greater than any global warming event have occured thousands of times in the earth's history and it is still here with zero help from us. To think that we have the capability of destroying the earth is the height of arrogance.
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lfergie8121 year, 4 months ago
I got 21 for family and 10.5 for me. What did me in was the vehicle even though I only drive 1200 miles a year. Bummer. Of course if there were more in my family beside the 2 of use, it might have been less.
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jordan111 year, 4 months ago
I did better on this 'test' than the last one I took, & am below the national average. The flying kills it for a really good score, but there's no way I can fix that.
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lfergie8121 year, 4 months ago
If flying is necessary for work, blame it on the employer and reduce your score. {[:-)
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LordyLordy1 year, 4 months ago
I think I had a 7.4 for me and 30 for the household; however, you sense the calculator is skewed, and how it was calculated is by EPA, a laugh to anyone who knows what they do and who they hire. I've come to distrust almost any government agency, especially EPA and OSHA. Overly educated idiots...with no common sense.
I refused to buy a pager or a cell phone. If I could do without a telephone I would. I live in an original soddie or sod house build in the 1800's and modernized as each generation moved into it. They will not permit you to build one like that now. It was grandfathered in because my great grandfather built it. The walls are 3-6 foot thick, made of earth, and it takes little energy to heat the house, nor cool it in summer. The garage and attic are over insulated. We grow most of our own vegetables and the meat we eat is pasture grass fed beef, which is actually good for you, not like feed lot beef which is full of hormones and antibiotics. Good score, who knows?
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LordyLordy1 year, 4 months ago
New cars have gadgets in them that we don't need (blame the auto mfg). They add weight. When you get too lazy to roll down your own windows, turn on and off your own lights, and have to have air conditioning and climate control in your vehicle, perhaps you should not be driving? Mine have 2-60 air conditioning and armstrong steering. You roll down two windows and drive 60, and you better have strong arms because there is no power assist steering. Once you're moving you don't need power steering. Many of us have to drive to work, some of us fly once in a while, just not every day. You cannot afford the water to raise your own garden any more, and the electric company literally rapes the consumers now.
And the worst thing of all is that WE THINK more government invervention will help. Oh please...most of these people are idiots! They could not pour sand out of their shoes if the instructions were printed on the bottom.
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LordyLordy1 year, 4 months ago
A person does what they can, but there has to be a level of sanity to it. Maybe we need to pressure the dumps to do the recyling process. It makes more sense at that end. We often spend more energy recyling than it pays on the other end is all I'm saying. I cannot drive 20 miles to save a $1.
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jordan111 year, 4 months ago
wow, your house sounds amazing! I'm growing my own vegetables this year, my first try. Am using large pots, as we have a huge 'slug' problem here (& I'm not about to hand pick them for disposal! ewww) We only eat fish twice a week, and are sort of vegetarians the rest of the time. I have had pasture fed beef, however. Beef is raised here by the pasture method, without hormones, etc. We can order it online, and they have it to us within two days. Every now and then I do enjoy a good roast.
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ETproductions1 year, 4 months ago
We did pretty well. 22 for a family of 3. That's a bit behind the rest of the world at 17, but not bad for a bunch of energy hungry Americans. Flying did us in, and my son is required to do that. College internships and ROTC.
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puffin1 year, 4 months ago
I didn't take this test because I don't live in the States and it wouldn't give me any other options.
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puffin1 year, 4 months ago
Okay, I took the test, but used the closest state - 3.2. was my personal score. I'm not gonna even try & calculate for the others I live with - they all think I'm an eco-spazz. Lol
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jdhatl1 year, 4 months ago
You are throwing your money away. Why is it patriotic to squander resources? It's because your "patriotism" is loyalty to anything liberals hate. That makes you a REACTIONARY. Since you think it's the lack of Jesus in people's lives that cause them to get raped, you are a Christian Supremacist. You are an extreme partisan who puts your political affiliation above the lives of innocent people. You are a conspiracy theorist because everything you find a way to blame on liberals. You repeat the war propaganda regarding Muslims, which makes you a racist. If you think Rush Limbaugh "makes sense" and that "people should listen to him", then you are a FASCIST. Just remember, no matter how much you love Bush & Co, they have nothing but contempt for you. Loyalty gets you nowhere.
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CaptainShev1 year, 4 months ago
Dude, why you boasting about this? It just kinda makes you sound like a bit of a ******. It's not terribly patriotic to deliberately speed up processes that will eventually change the face of the earth as we know it, making the whole planet less viable for life. That will include America, you know. And lets not forget all the environmental refugees that will be flocking to you soon enough.
6.5 was my footprint - not too bad, but could do better....
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capecoralM1 year, 4 months ago
Be careful not to break your CF bulbs - She was referred to the DEP's environmental response team. A specialist who responded found mercury readings more than six times the state's acceptable level at the spot of the broken bulb.
Readings a few feet from the spot where the bulb broke were within safe levels.
The specialist referred Bridges to an environmental cleanup company. The estimated cost, according to Bridges, was about $2,000.
DEP officials said homeowners can safely clean up broken bulbs on their own by following careful instructions and wearing gloves, safety glasses, coveralls & respiratory protection.
Never vacuum the mess. Vacuuming will only spread dust containing mercury and contaminate the vacuum.
Both DEP & federal EPA recommend removing larger pieces and placing them in a secure container. Smaller pieces & dust particles can be removed using two stiff pieces of paper a disposable broom & dustpan, duct tape or a mercury spill kit.
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LordyLordy1 year, 4 months ago
My grandfather used to say of city dwellers: They pour concrete and asphalt all over grass and trees, poison their own water, drink the water they cr@p in an hour earlier, and they have the nerve to call us country folk stupid?
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Charlson1 year, 4 months ago
Spoken by someone from the ME generation. And probably a neocon.
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GWHayduke1 year, 4 months ago
Libs - although I hesitate to respond and confirm your idiocy, its too difficult not to.
What you continue to demonstrate is exactly what you claim to despise. That is the concept of entitlement - you feel that you can consume and waste any amount of resource just because you can. The repugnancy of that behavior is exactly what has made this country loathed by the rest of the world.
Please keep your boorish behavior to yourself.
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DeadHead131 year, 4 months ago
"Libs- although I hesitate to respond and confirm your idiocy, it's too difficult not to."
Perhaps that is because the liberal "idiocy" is a lot less idiotic than the conservative idiocy.
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samsara151 year, 4 months ago
I don't do well, 63, but we do the best we can and don't think environmental concerns are crap at all.Our biggest score comes from owning a large detached home. We keep our home at 68 in the winter and 74 in the summer and drive a Toyota Camry. The world needs more tree huggers.
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lvrofwolves1 year, 4 months ago
23 family 5.5 myself but I can do better, I think we all can if we want. I don't get why some people don't understand all the benefits, for a healthier environment, your health will be better, and you will save $ too!
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Star_Poet1 year, 4 months ago
I asked 437 liberals what they thought about recycling.
Amazingly, only .07% of them said that it made a difference.
Conclusion: Recycling must not be an individual effort. Instead it "must" take place at the municipal level for sure.
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jumpmaster1 year, 4 months ago
Maybe you could rent out the extra rooms to Jimmy Carter. Or you could designate one of them as the Lincoln Bedroom and rent it out to George Soros.
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ecotourusa1 year, 4 months ago
Grow Your Own Food!
I met Bob Marley's mother at her home in Miami. she walked me around the Marley property. That experience had such an impact on me. I learned that we do not need ornamental plants in our yards to decorate with. All you need are fruit trees, vegetable plants and herb shrubs. Everywhere on her property was food growing. And, it was beautiful---because it was not the usual, waste of resources, ornamental landscaping. I live in an apartment and grow tomatoes, herbs, peppers, etc. in pots. Grow your own food if it's at all possible.
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Natureboy1 year, 4 months ago
Lawns waste space which could grow food, and they cost on the average just under $200 per year to maintain.
Lawns got their start as an affectation of the "Nobility," a way to say to the whole world, "look at us, we are so rich we can waste land and labor."
Check out the "Food not Lawns" movement
and buy/borrow/steal the book of the same name. It is brilliant.
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Natureboy1 year, 4 months ago
Well, it's an interesting test. Doesn't capture everything. For example, it asked about how fuel-efficient our vehicles are and how far we drive, but I run one of our cars on biodiesel from waste veggie oil, and there was nothing about THAT. Nor about what we are doing with our green spaces. We are planting almost all of our land in fruit trees, edible plants and culinary and medicinal herbs in the "Food not Lawns" tradition. Using greywater to irrigate them, although most are selected for drought resistance anyway.
But beyond that, the quiz perpetuates the myth that this is all the responsibility of the consumer. Can General Motors take a quiz? Howabout all of the supermarkets that have their produced shipped from Mexico rather than buying locally? Can they take a quiz?
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Natureboy1 year, 4 months ago
I am fortunate to own a home. I am fortunate to have a friend who cracks waste veggie oil into biodiesel and gives me some in return for my buying his methanol and lye.
Beyond that, anybody can do what I am doing. I plan to do more. You don't have to spend a fortune at the nursery. Network with neighbors and like-minded people and get a seed-exchange going. Use an earth-friendly laundry detergent and route the drain from your washer to your garden - instant greywater system - anyone can do this.
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perkonis1 year, 4 months ago
Wow. Got 100 for a family of 5. Then I wondered what would happen if I changed the state from Indiana, which I noticed was the second highest, to one of the lower impact states. Apparently I can cut my CO2 in half just by moving to Washington.
Methinks we should try to burn a bit less coal around here.
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HomeGManComment removed: User banned.
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Nowalive1 year, 4 months ago
I got a 7.1 for me, but I must be getting hit for energy because of living in an apartment. My biggest was energy use. 63.7% of my footprint was from energy use.
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jcolman
Jonathon D. Colman is the associate director of digital marketing for The Nature Conservancy, where he manages the strategic development and promotion of the Conservancy ...
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