<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>A quick note--I seek to motivate people to change, so the numbers don't have to be precise as long as people comprehend the degree of change we face. Robert Cialdini's book Influence is a huge help with this idea.<br><br>Best, Mike<div>Sent from my iPhone</div></div><div><br>On Jan 26, 2016, at 11:50 AM, conservation architect <<a href="mailto:elitalking@rockbridge.net">elitalking@rockbridge.net</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<div>I hope the great minds of this list are still out there. </div>
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<div>I am on the Unity with Nature committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, a
regional Quaker group with Meetings in VA, MD, PA, &WV. We are wanting
to promote our members calculating their personal footprint to give witness to
our own actions. However, I am challenged to find an accurate way to
do this. I hope list participants can contribute. </div>
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<div>Tracking our own carbon footprint is a form of witness to the impact of our
own actions. I have not spent much time on these calculators.
However, I do see it similar to the programs that assess house energy
efficiency. Some components of heat loss are straight math. Where as
an assessment of how much the use of energy star appliances saves you is very
fuzzy. When the program has an internal judgment of the impact of the
information entered in the form, we are left to trust that unknown metric.
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<div>Using most of the calculators requires that we gather the information in
form from which they make judgment about the impact. Can we ourselves
structure our own records to provide us with the information needed to calculate
our carbon footprint. Some information must be extrapolated.
However, some information does not. The cool climate calculator <a title="http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/calculator" href="http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/calculator">http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/calculator</a>
will ask you what kind of car you use in general terms and miles driven and make
an assumption of how much gas you burned. However, if we wrote down the
amount of gas in volume, that would very accurately reflect our carbon emissions
with fewer assumptions. Instead of asking how much money we spend on
electricity, we can enter how many kilowatt hours we consume from our
bills. Some mix from the power company sources would be helpful on the
extrapolation. That would be more challenging, but more useful.
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<div>Travel on airlines would depend on actual distances, number of take offs
and landings. I did find a airline specific calculator that offers a line
for connecting flights, often greatly increasing the actual miles over the
actual distance to the destination. </div>
<div>This link is a air travel specific calculator that accounts for non direct
flights. <a href="http://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3">http://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3</a></div>
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<div>The cool climate calculator only ask what area of your house is. This
general assumption that square foot size of a house can determine the carbon
footprint pretty much puts the whole result in doubt. This largest
component of energy use has a huge variation. </div>
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<div>There are huge variations between real carbon emissions and the assumptions
that they use to come up with a number. If we actually entered the natural
gas, coal, propane, kerosene purchased, we would get an accurate carbon number
for those components. This bypasses the judgment of how efficient your car, home
is with a precise number of the result. </div>
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<div>However, it is necessary to extrapolate secondary carbon footprint for the
embedded energy in the products we consume. This is more difficult. </div>
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<div>Food is another large area of impact that is difficult to
extrapolate. <a href="http://www.foodemissions.com/foodemissions/Calculator.aspx">http://www.foodemissions.com/foodemissions/Calculator.aspx</a>
This calculator is very detailed, requiring each item of food be entered.
Much more tedious. However, much more likely to be accurate. </div>
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<div>Establishing a metric where the assumptions are understood would add
transparency and integrity to the process. How to do this is a
challenge. </div>
<div>Can we find a process that is clear enough for us to share and
promote? </div>
<div>Can we rely on the internal metrics of calculators provided online?</div>
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<div>Thank you for making it to the end of this long note.</div>
<div>This link is a air travel specific calculator that accounts for non direct
flights. </div>
<div><a href="http://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3">http://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>Detailed food calculator:
<a href="http://www.foodemissions.com/foodemissions/Calculator.aspx">http://www.foodemissions.com/foodemissions/Calculator.aspx</a></div>
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