You can be the change you want to see in this world…
To reach its target under the Protocol from 2008-2012, will have to reduce its ‘business as usual’ greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 34 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent: a 9% decrease on forecast business-as-usual emissions for 2008.
That’s a reduction of 8.5 tonnes of carbon output per person living in NZ.
If we listen to Al Gore then this is immediately possible by making some small, conscious changes to our lifestyle, today and every day in the future…..
Live Earth has been pretty hard to miss this wet and rainy weekend and having once already attempted to work out my personal carbon balance thought I would give it a try using the new Earth Lab Live Impact EPC Personal Carbon calculator.
Your initial ECP score is based upon basic categories related to home, energy, work, commute, travel, and lifestyle, which is then converted to a personal carbon output balance. Below, is a breakdown of the different parts of the ECP:
- -Your Carbon Output
- -Your Lifestyle Habits
- -Your Pledges/Intended Actions
- -Educational/Supportive Opportunities
My Carbon Output was calculated at 21.1 Tonnes of carbon per year
By Simply
- -Pledging to plant a tree (with pleasure!)
- -Promising to catch the Bus four times a week (always amusing, especially when you get four buses stuck in a one way bus tunnel on your way to a meeting which you are already late for)
- -Carpooling at least once a week
- -Using energy efficient lighting in the house – I did this as soon as it was murmured this was going to be made law in NZ
- Recycling , Reusing, Renewing…….
I was able to reduce my Carbon Output to 11.2 Tonnes of carbon per year
These few simple tasks brought about a 50% reduction in my personal carbon output, and as a citizen of sufficiently contributing to our required reduction in carbon output to honor the agreement..
Whether this is an actually achievable reduction and true calculation of what is possible or not – the point still applies. We need to something, and something is better than nothing. Small things are probably all we’ve got. We are pretty much tied to the rat race, and most of us love all things that draw power – BlackBerry’s, browsing the Internet, hot showers, good sounds and that is never going to change. How we power these needs to change...NZ needs more renewable, carbon neutral energy. We need to support companies that are able to produce energy more efficiently. The Energywatch organization has some interesting information which will fill you in more!
