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I'm surprised how many people crave some sort of grade or score like an insurance appraisal when it comes to their footprint. I guess so if it's high, they can

I'm surprised how many people crave some sort of grade or score like an insurance appraisal when it comes to their footprint. I guess so if it's high, they can guilt themselves into reducing it, and if it's low, they can guilt others into reducing theirs (good luck with the second part). There's also a big "cosmo-quiz" element here, where certain aspects involve a temptation to lie to yourself in order to get the score you feel you "deserve". If I told you a cross-section of passengers on the RMS Titanic was comparing their relative contributions to the momentum of the ship toward the iceberg, you'd probably gain a different perspective on the question you asked. A few nits here: •I work from home In what country, what kind of industry, and what kind of home? A coal commodities trader in Australia vs. a wind turbine designer in Denmark might make for a huge swing. •drive 10k miles a year Bumper-to-bumper or wide open high-speed driving? There's at least a threefold difference in those two numbers, with bumper-to-bumper using far less carbon. •eat beef once a month What about chicken? almonds? grapes? corn? Coca-Cola? The relative carbon footprints of each food would be necessary to know. Beef itself has a radically different footprint whether consumed in say, Texas, Brazil, or Japan. •16 flights a year On your own personal GulfStream V, or crammed in to full-up Spirit A321's? The former is a huge use of fuel whereas the latter uses fewer gallons of fuel per mile per person than driving an SUV alone. •I buy little stuff Wait until you reproduce, move, or your government expands. This is not a place you can commit savings and I think a lot of people struggle to accept this. Further, the stuff you buy can almost be inversely proportional in terms of transportation infrastructure requirements. Someone who gets one small Amazon package a month living on an Alaskan island with millions of dollars of bridge-to-nowhere infrastructure would be far bigger a carbon producer than a shopaholic clothes-horse living on a major Manhattan thoroughfare.

ed_balls 8y ago
> they can guilt themselves I dont feel guilty and wanna guilt trip someone. I'm interested in the subject, because there is a lot of false information. Is buying Tesla really that great? What if I drive very little? Maybe my totals C02 would be low (expensive production of Tesla). Is beef that bad for C02? I have to grow grass that captures C02.
- mchannon 8y ago
  Is buying a Tesla that great for CO2 footprint? No, nor is buying any new car. Over the life of the vehicle, it's pretty close to a wash vs. a similarly-sized new BMW roadster, unless you drive it an awful lot. If buying a Tesla helps Tesla make more batteries more cheaply, and make gasoline a lower-volume commodity, then there's some benefit there. Beef is bad for CO2 for 3 reasons: 1) getting water (pumping) to the beef or the cropland to feed the beef often causes CO2 to be produced. 2) growing cattle feed is extremely CO2-intensive due to the ammonia-based fertilizers corn uses. Every stalk of corn is producing CO2 because of the way we grow corn. 3) beef's popularity and need for feed means we're repurposing rainforest and releasing eons of poorly-sequestered carbon. It's a one-time hit, and then after that the damage is minimal, but it's a big one-time hit. If you go strictly grass-fed beef, I suppose you could argue you're not producing as much CO2, but substitute CO2-intense beef would get that much cheaper in price, negating most of the benefit.

ed_balls 8y ago

> they can guilt themselves I dont feel guilty and wanna guilt trip someone. I'm interested in the subject, because there is a lot of false information. Is buying Tesla really that great? What if I drive very little? Maybe my totals C02 would be low (expensive production of Tesla). Is beef that bad for C02? I have to grow grass that captures C02.

mchannon 8y ago
Is buying a Tesla that great for CO2 footprint? No, nor is buying any new car. Over the life of the vehicle, it's pretty close to a wash vs. a similarly-sized new BMW roadster, unless you drive it an awful lot. If buying a Tesla helps Tesla make more batteries more cheaply, and make gasoline a lower-volume commodity, then there's some benefit there. Beef is bad for CO2 for 3 reasons: 1) getting water (pumping) to the beef or the cropland to feed the beef often causes CO2 to be produced. 2) growing cattle feed is extremely CO2-intensive due to the ammonia-based fertilizers corn uses. Every stalk of corn is producing CO2 because of the way we grow corn. 3) beef's popularity and need for feed means we're repurposing rainforest and releasing eons of poorly-sequestered carbon. It's a one-time hit, and then after that the damage is minimal, but it's a big one-time hit. If you go strictly grass-fed beef, I suppose you could argue you're not producing as much CO2, but substitute CO2-intense beef would get that much cheaper in price, negating most of the benefit.