In my previous post I said I would rather pay a carbon tax than a buy a hybrid car if asked to choose between the two. Although it seems (and unfortunately so) unlikely we will have a carbon tax in the US in the immediate future, I wanted to calculate what kind of carbon tax I am personally looking at per month. So I proceeded to estimate my total carbon footprint, both - direct emissions I cause while I drive, commute, turn on stove etc and indirect - embodied in the electricity and water I use and also the goods and services I use. I found one online calculator that seems easy to use and reasonably detailed to get an estimate one's carbon footprint. http://www.coolcalifornia.org/calculator.
I hope the tool takes into account the fact that some part of everything I buy in the US has originated half away around the globe and for goods like plastics, clothing, electronics etc. entirely so.
So go ahead and try the tool. See if you get a happy face or sorry face (you can get atleast one other type of face which I will reveal later). If you got a happy face, multiply your total emissions of CO2 per year by say $30, this a reasonable first approximation for the amount you can expect to pay if we had carbon fee of that amount or a policy such as that in the European Union. Do you still have a happy face? My bet is if you are bothering with reading my post or playing with tool, you will not be too worried (unless you are a friend or family member and were urged to visit my new blog and write nice comments).
While the tool was interesting, what I found cool was you can not only find out what actions you may take (these choices are generated and ranked based on where your hot air is coming from) and there are indeed several of these, but you can also get an estimate of what are the things you should be doing first i.e., the least cost actions you can undertake. There are several that save you money right way and involve no additional expenditure. However, I bet they involve some cost in the form of lifestyle changes or seeking out information etc.. The usual ones such as buying more efficient products involve a positive payback period i.e., it takes a while to recoup the extra cost in the form of savings in operating cost.
Guess what, I was not advised to upgrade my car, leave alone upgrade to a hybrid car! So I decided to be a little mischievous and said I drive enough to go from Los Angeles to New York back once every month and also visit my parents in India (and of course my in-laws too) six times a year. This was enough to make the happy face on the summary page burst into tears. He suggested the first thing I do is to get a more efficient car!!!
I hope the tool takes into account the fact that some part of everything I buy in the US has originated half away around the globe and for goods like plastics, clothing, electronics etc. entirely so.
So go ahead and try the tool. See if you get a happy face or sorry face (you can get atleast one other type of face which I will reveal later). If you got a happy face, multiply your total emissions of CO2 per year by say $30, this a reasonable first approximation for the amount you can expect to pay if we had carbon fee of that amount or a policy such as that in the European Union. Do you still have a happy face? My bet is if you are bothering with reading my post or playing with tool, you will not be too worried (unless you are a friend or family member and were urged to visit my new blog and write nice comments).
While the tool was interesting, what I found cool was you can not only find out what actions you may take (these choices are generated and ranked based on where your hot air is coming from) and there are indeed several of these, but you can also get an estimate of what are the things you should be doing first i.e., the least cost actions you can undertake. There are several that save you money right way and involve no additional expenditure. However, I bet they involve some cost in the form of lifestyle changes or seeking out information etc.. The usual ones such as buying more efficient products involve a positive payback period i.e., it takes a while to recoup the extra cost in the form of savings in operating cost.
Guess what, I was not advised to upgrade my car, leave alone upgrade to a hybrid car! So I decided to be a little mischievous and said I drive enough to go from Los Angeles to New York back once every month and also visit my parents in India (and of course my in-laws too) six times a year. This was enough to make the happy face on the summary page burst into tears. He suggested the first thing I do is to get a more efficient car!!!
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