CO2 Diet

The CO2 diet will not help individuals shrink their waists, but help communities shrink their waste—all in the name of saving the planet from human-caused warming.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the earth has been warming faster and faster. Nowadays we have more cars on the road and jets in the air, bigger factories, and busy lifestyles that demand carbon-producing conveniences. Yet, individual actions created these changes in society so individual actions can reverse their effects.

One baby-step at a time.

Greenhouse Gluttony

Greenhouse gases naturally warm our earth, and without them life could not exist. Water vapor causes about 36% to 70% of the greenhouse effect; carbon dioxide contributes about 9% to 26%; methane joins in at 4% to 9%, and nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases cause about 3% to 7%. However, the concentration of these greenhouse gases is increasing because of human activities.

Those who point fingers at electricity generation, industry, agriculture, commercial businesses, and transportation have a valid argument. In 2006, generating the electricity from fossil fuels that the other sectors would then use contributed 2.378 billion metric tons of carbon, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. So individuals alone probably will not eliminate global warming, but each can work to reduce emissions.

Measure Your Footprint

Just as you would if you started a weight reduction program, start your carbon reduction program with a benchmark. Only instead of stepping on to a bathroom scale, inventory your carbon footprint with the help of the Web.

One pound of carbon dioxide is what is released each time a person drives or flies a mile. It takes a pound of CO2 to heat five gallons of water. A metric ton of carbon equals about 10,000 miles of driving at 25 miles per gallon of gasoline, about one year of home heating using a natural gas-fired furnace, or about four months of electricity from coal-fired generation.

Before you visit one of the carbon footprint calculator Web sites listed below, take a wild guess at your annual household CO2 emissions.

Then, gather some basic household information—your fuel mileage and annual mileage on each car or truck in your home and your monthly electricity and heating fuel bills. These Web sites below make your calculations simple by asking fill-in-the-blank questions.

Measure Your Impact

Several Web sites will help you inventory your carbon footprint. Have your electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and propane bills handy, plus calculate fuel mileage and annual use on the vehicles in the household. Either Google “carbon footprint” or visit one of the following sites:

• www.carboncounter.org:80/offset-your-emissions/personal-calculator.aspx

• www.carbonfootprint.com/

• www.globalwarmingactionalliance.org]

Next, compare your emissions to the U.S. household average of 54,600 pounds of carbon dioxide released annually. In Germany, the annual average is 27,700 pounds and Sweden beats almost everyone with a 14,400-pound annual average.

Then set your personal “carbon weight” target.

A successful weight loss diet requires long-term changes in eating habits. A successful CO2 diet means long-term changes in energy habits. Just a 2% annual reduction in carbon emissions will add up to 20% less CO2 in the atmosphere over 10 years.

Finally, instead of cutting candy bars from your daily snack, choose which of the following carbon-reducing tips you will implement today, next week, next year and within 10 years.

In the Kitchen

Refrigerators burn more electricity than any other home appliance. They usually gobble up 10% to 15% of the average household electricity. And older refrigerators are worse. A 15-year-old unit can be 50% less efficient that a new Energy Star model.

But if you cannot afford to buy a new refrigerator, don’t despair. If your refrigerator is near a heating vent or always in the sun, then change the location, cover up the heat vent near it or drape the window. Turn on your “energy saver” switch near the thermostat. Clean the condenser coil. This one, very simple thing can improve the efficiency of your refrigerator by a third. Make sure the doors seal properly to keep the cool in.

At the Table

• Eat local food. Out-of-season food must be trucked to your local store, warming the planet for your culinary pleasure. Within the past 30 years, fruit and vegetable wholesalers have demanded that farmers raise products that can withstand long-distance transportation. Yet, shelf life is inversely linked to flavor. Local food will be more flavorful and less expensive than food from distant locales.

• Bring a bag to the grocery store. A reusable cloth bag saves trees.

• Plant a garden. Even window box gardens save transportation costs and help reduce carbon emissions.

• Plant a roof. Rooftop flowers and vegetables absorb heat, absorb water, and take up CO2.

• Expand your horticulture frenzy by planting a tree. Check with your local extension agent for long-lived varieties. Besides soaking up carbon, trees reduce heating and cooling costs by providing a windbreak and shade. Plant them strategically.

• Design your yard and garden to use water efficiently. Water your lawn sparingly. Train plant roots to plunge deep into the ground by sprinkling longer and less often.

Lights Out

The best way to reduce carbon emissions in other rooms is to turn off the lights when no one is in the room. Use natural light where you can.

But some rooms are the center of household activity and the lights stay on almost all the time. They are fantastic candidates for compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). CFLs use about a third of the energy that a conventional bulb uses and provides the same bright light. If every household in the U.S. replaced a burned-out bulb with an energy-efficient, compact fluorescent bulb, more than 13 billion pounds of carbon dioxide would not enter the atmosphere—which is like taking more than a million cars off the road for an entire year.

However, CFLs contain mercury so don’t toss them in the kitchen garbage if they break.

Turn off your computer at night, or even during the day if you do not plan to use it within an hour.

Plug periodic energy users—cell phones, DVD, TV, coffee maker, and kitchen counter appliances—into surge protectors and then flip them off when not using them. This is not new rocket science. Older houses often have a switch on the wall that powers several outlets.

Hot House

Typically, half of your energy costs go toward heating and cooling so even small changes can lead to significant savings.

• Tune up your heating system. Do this once every couple of years and reduce your heating costs by 10% each year.

• Save another 10% when you clean vents, close unused vents, and change filters in the vents.

• Insulate walls and ceilings to lower heating bills. Choose energy-saving, double-pane windows.

• Buy and use a programmable thermostat, which can regulate different temperatures at different times of the day. Right now, three-quarters of people who have programmable thermostats don’t use them.

• Keep the door shut to any room that is not being used, saving the energy to heat that room.

• Use ceiling fans instead of air conditioning to reduce your cooling costs by more than half.

• Choose a power company that offers electricity generated by renewable energy sources for homes.

• Investigate alternative solar and wind energy for your home. Residential solar units and wind turbines are becoming more affordable and, often, energy providers will provide grants or low-interest loans to defray start-up costs. Start with www.awea.org/faq/rsdntqa.html or www.nrel.gov/wind/ to learn more.

The other big users of energy in your household are your hot water heater, your washer and dryer, and your dishwasher.

• Either turn the hot water heater down a couple of degrees, or turn on the “energy conservation” setting.

• Buy insulation for your hot water heater at a local store and insulate the pipes, too.

• Install a timer on your water heater to turn off at night and back on just before you wake up in the morning.

• When possible, wash a few dishes by hand. Over time, that will save a few loads in the dishwasher, conserving energy. Wait until you have a full load to run the dishwasher.

• Wash clothes in warm or cold water, not hot. Most detergents are formulated to clean in cold water. The clothes will be just as clean, and you’ll cut energy use by 50%.

• Save 15% when you don’t over-dry your clothes. Even better, hang clothes on a line outside. You will save energy and your clothes will smell fresh.

Minimize the Unnecessary

Two-thirds of the U.S. economy depends on consumer spending. Test your influence by minimizing purchases of items you don’t need. Every time you buy something, energy has gone into getting that product to you. So the less you buy, the more you save energy-wise.

• Buy in bulk. Bulk items use less packaging and less energy.

• Clean out your closet. Donate or recycle clothes you have not worn in a year and then promise to not replace them.

• While you’re at it, donate used furniture, appliances and other useful household items.

• Many towns and cities host Web sites that connect people who need useful, used items with those who have them to sell or give away.

• Buy quality products that will last longer so you don’t need to replace them as often.

In Your Car

Experts say that paying attention to fuel efficiency in your car may be the single biggest thing you can do to prevent global warming. SUVs emit 43% more global-warming pollutants (28 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon) and 47% more air pollution than the average car. But with skyrocketing fuel and food prices, trading off the old gas-guzzler might not be in the budget so try these tips instead.

• A car needs only about two minutes to warm up. Taking more time only wastes fuel and contributes to global warming.

• Drive less. Piling multiple errands into one trip helps.

• Get your car tuned up. A simple tune-up often improves fuel efficiency by half. If 100,000 citizens tuned up their cars, they would save 124,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

• Slow down, don’t race your car’s engine, and watch your idling. All of these save on gas and our globe.

• Ask your employer if you can work from home. Even if your job allows you to eliminate your commute only a few days each month, you save money and emissions.

Get Involved

Encourage county politicians to institute recycling programs. Promote community carpooling. Promote the construction of bike lanes, especially bike lanes that have an outside curb separating auto traffic and bikes. Encourage senators and representatives to support energy-wise legislation.

Whether a person’s goal is to lose weight or shrink carbon dioxide emissions, a diet takes discipline and effort. Yet, a few simple, inexpensive acts can culminate into an immense impact. So instead of renewing the age-old resolution to lose 10 pounds, resolve to lighten your footprint. Our human habitat depends on it.

To find creative ways to reduce your carbon emissions, visit the following Web sites:

•www.thegreenguide.com

•www.stopglobalwarming.org

•www.carbonrally.com

~ Lisa Schmidt nd her husband, Steve Hutton, raise grassfed cattle and sheep near Conrad, MT. Schmidt writes about natural resource issues for a wide variety of magazines. She can be reached at [email protected].