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Version 1.0 : 17 February 2005 | |
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Hello <$firstname$> In the week after Tony Blair warned world leaders that we only have seven years to tackle climate change, the launch of Countdown, my new easy-to-use carbon calculator, responds to the demand for a simple CO2 estimator that you can use on yourself, your friends or the people you are coaching. If this spreads like wild fire, fantastic. Then that other bonfire – the global fossil fuel bonfire – starts getting extinguished, and climate change is slowed. One scary countdown has already started: to climate chaos, floods, extreme weather, polar bear extinction, areas of our planet becoming uninhabitable … tick… tock… tick… The other countdown – the one that inspires me – is taking responsibility for getting my own carbon count down – looking at my CO2 wasteline and shrinking it fast. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six… all the way down to ‘fair shares’ – the almost unimaginable one tonne each – or less. That’s where I’m off to. I reckon it will be fun. Try Countdown to count a good friend’s carbon today (or your own if you haven’t yet) and let’s get this conversation started! Influence people and make friends!
Countdown to Countdown… I’ve been looking at some of the carbon calculators out there. There are lots of them! But many people have been put off by the complexity of these existing calculators, and are crying out for a quicker, simpler method they can grab hold of now. So I've created one.
No one’s saying it’s going to be easy – but no one’s saying we can’t do it either. First we have to decide that we want to. Then we need to know where we’re starting from. Then off we go… Our mission is to lead the way to the future – today Because CO2 is invisible, both literally and in many other senses, it’s hard to spot the difference between Mr and Mrs Purple (100 tonne carbon obese) and Mr and Mrs Green (one tonne carbon svelte). At the moment there are a few bright spots of green in amongst a lacklustre sea of purple, but this could invert. You could end up sticking out like a sore thumb if you don’t lose some purple. What if we all walked around with “I am 10 tonnes a year” stamped on our forehead? Incredibly, most of the biggest emitters of CO2 aren’t labelled – yet: houses, cars, aeroplanes and people! So we can still 'pee in the pool' and get away with it. And that’s not such a bad analogy really. In reality we all swim around in an ocean of air. Thales of Miletus (c 625–545 BC) observed: "We live not, in reality, on the summit of a solid earth, but at the bottom of an ocean of air." The water’s not as clear as it used to be. In school pools they used to put a chemical in the water that would locally turn bright purple when the water was tainted by urine! (Forgive the analogy!). Stand on your own two feet In the coming months I will publish information that will help you manage your secondary footprint: (food, waste, consumption, diet). We each have two feet, one primary, one secondary, and generally speaking our lifestyle is seldom lopsided. Five tonnes on each foot is average. Here and now it’s your primary footprint that we are counting: your home energy and travel. This is the ‘foot’ that contains the most surprises, and it’s where the biggest savings can be made. Savings of carbon and cash. The average primary footprint in the UK is five tonnes per person per year. (The average secondary footprint is similar.) But averages can mask individual reality.* So, read on to use my Countdown calculator.
Weigh up your carbon output and see where you stand. Don’t be distraught
if you come out a 30 tonne Tess or Ted. And don’t be smug if you
are already living a carbon-lite lifestyle. The biggest savings will come
from those with the biggest footprints. Make those people your best friends! *Interestingly, I imagine that around 80% of CO2 derives from just 20% of the population. It’s not as evenly spread as we might think. Carbon gluttonous lifestyles creep up on us… and all of a sudden we are hooked on a 100 tonne fossil fuel habit. Deep purple.
As ever, if you know of anyone who might be interested to know about this calculator, my newsletter and the CO2 issues I cover, please click on the link below to forward a short message that will invite them to visit my website and subscribe to Communiqué.
Just 'putting our own house in order' and shrinking our own household carbon bubble may seem like a vanishingly small contribution to the Earth's problems right now. A mere drop in the ocean. "There are much bigger issues to occupy me than my piddling little energy bill!" We might think. But what if everyone gets on and does it – then surely it's hey presto, we fix ourselves and the planet miraculously takes care of itself. What if the only thing stopping us getting started is that no one else is doing it yet?! Best wishes Dave Hampton
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Remember
– the UK average is five tonnes. How far off are you? Tell
your friend this figure is only approximate but it’s a good
place to start. Help them as they step off the scales. Hold their
hand. Breathe deep with them. No one said this was gonna be easy!
