"History is a wonderful thing, if only it was true"
-Tolstoy

Monday, April 23, 2007

Greenery

Well, with Earth Day and all the concomitant news and feature stories tied to the “Greenhouse” and carbon issues I decided to do some rough checks on our household “budget”

Quick check online and found Carbon Footprint calculator

Pulled together some good estimates (I happen to track our uses) and the results run something like this

All real estate (utilities use) comes to about 35metric tons of CO2, layer on assumed other use (per the calculator) and we get about 40 metric tons.

Then checking the carbon sequestration of just our red pine acres (about 15) and we get a number of about 60 metric tons annual “capture” (from an EPA site I lost track of)

This gives us from 150 to 175% capture vs generation, without even calculating an additional 35 acres of hardwoods, various other plantings and the like.

I feel better already, and don't need to "buy" carbon credits like some politicians seem to do.

I'll now probably try to refine my numbers, hopefully feel even better (G).

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