Is It Hot in Here?

Expert covers warming basics

By Greg Rohloff
Business Correspondent

Concern over rising temperatures apparently caused by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is fueling a drive to reduce individuals' carbon footprint — the amount of carbon dioxide that individual lifestyles generate — as a means of combating global warming.

And while the extreme skeptics doubt that global warming will cause actual harm to environments, the shifts to warmer climates and more extremes in storms could cause the disappearance of some species of plant and animal life, particularly those species adapted to small geographic areas. Examples include the Joshua trees in the deserts of California and western Utah.

In a Feb. 26 talk for the High Plains Institute for Applied Ecology, Dr. Richard Todd covered the basics of global warming and explained how individuals can take their own steps to reduce their output of carbon dioxide from such sources as transportation and home heating.

Water vapor contributes about 36 percent of the content of greenhouse gases, while carbon dioxide makes up about 12 percent, Todd said. Other common sources such as methane are minute amounts, but have a much greater warming potential than carbon dioxide.

Todd presented a simple calculation of an individual's carbon footprint as a starting point for making practical reductions on an individual basis.

Automobile travel's contribution to greenhouse gases can be calculated by dividing the ratio of miles driven per year to miles-per-gallon by 100, he said. Thus, a person who drives 15,000 miles a year, a typical amount, in a car that averages 20 miles per gallon produces about 7.5 tons of carbon dioxide in a year.

The contribution from air transportation, whether for personal travel or freight, can be calculated by dividing the number of miles flown by 3,600. A traveler who goes to Dallas by air once a month would be responsible for approximately 2.3 tons of carbon dioxide in a year.

Home heating and cooling's contribution to global warming can be calculated for both electricity use and natural gas use with similar formulas, Todd said. Multiplying the average monthly electric bill by 0.07 and dividing the average monthly natural gas bill by 20 would show their share. If both averaged $75 a month, turning on the lights at home would generate 5.25 tons of CO2 in a year, while natural gas usage would produce 3.75 tons of CO2 a year.

The U.S. average per person is 20.8 tons a year, Todd said.

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Posted: March 6, 2008