Carbon Neutral by the end of 2006

Most of us know that climate change is one of the single greatest threats our planet has ever faced. I’m tired of feeling personally powerless to do anything to stop it. So I might as well start change on my own front doorstep. My new goal for 2006 is for my family to be completely carbon neutral.

First things first, I have to take an inventory of our carbon output. I’m frankly a little nervous about this because I don’t think the results are going to be pretty. Here’s a good tool.

Toyota Prius – 25K km / year = 3.5 tons (using Fueleconomy.gov)
2nd Family Car – 12K km / year = 5.5 tons (using Fueleconomy.gov)
Gas Toys – Let's say 1 ton
Natural Gas Heating:
1 m³ of natural gas = 0.3639924 therm [U.S.]
Avg house 3500 m3/year = 1273 therms * 11 lbs CO2/therm = 14000 pounds = 7 tons
Products we consume, travel etc. – Let’s say 5 tons
Electricity - 20,000 KWh * 1.5CO2/KWh= 30000 pounds = 15 tons

Total = 37 tons CO2 / year

This is by no means a scientific approach, so I’ll throw on a couple extra tons for speeding and call the number 40 tons. Crap, that sounds like a lot. Well considering I am in southern Ontario where most electricity is either nuclear or hydro, the electricity number seems a little out of whack. But I’ll ignore it because we still do have several coal power plants and who knows where my electrons have been.