The Complicated Equation for Going Green

A good, thoughtful rundown on what going green can achieve — and what it can cost — from The Wall Street Journal (free). It begins:

Going green is the new black in 2007. Advice abounds on how to cut your carbon dioxide output and do your part in the battle against global warming. But how much does a person have to spend to go green–and what kind of environmental impact would that spending actually have?

The U.S. is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, accounting for 25% of the world’s total. The average American is responsible for about 20 metric tons a year of CO2 equivalent (CO2e), a standard measure of greenhouse gases. That’s about 40,000 pounds of CO2e a year, per capita, a far greater number than that of any other industrialized country.

We set out to evaluate a few of the in-vogue recommendations based on what they cost and what they’d do for the environment. In each area we offer up three levels of feasibility–hard, medium and easy. Where possible, we’ve crunched the numbers to estimate how much a change would cost, how many pounds of CO2e each step can save and the percentage each would knock off one person’s emissions.

4 thoughts on “The Complicated Equation for Going Green”

  1. Good article, and it’s a good start, but we have a long, long way to go to sustainability, and peak oil and a shift in geopolitical dominance from the US to China are going to complicate things further.

    There is a strong likelihood that in some ways it’s too late, that a century and a half of large-scale, world-wide anthropogenic change has already set things in motion that will take a century or more to arrest, let alone reverse.

    I hope I’m wrong.

  2. From what I understand, it can take a very long time and a whole lot of miles to recoup the cost of a hybrid. But, I have to say, the 35+mpg I get in my Honda Civic is pretty darned good. At least I feel good about it. I’d also like a little respect for driving an ecologically sound choice, but unfortunately–and this is one of my pet peeves–there are always people in SUVs and pickups who just have to pull in front of me in traffic and on freeways so that I can’t see ahead of them. Argghh. It’s dangerous!

  3. Some very interesting reading, complete with answers, comes from Schwartzeneggers ecology guru. Book is called Lives Per Gallon. And yes, we have a long way to go, but saying it’s too late is damning the entire human race. We can at least try. A good start would be banning SUV’s and all cars that get less than 40 miles per gallon.

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