You are living it!
Never again all of us living now will experience Co2 level below 400 PPM.
Most of us are aware of what is happening to our planet, the warming of seas, the floods, the Typhoons, the snow storm. All of this is happening, it is the cycle. What is strange about all this is that the velocity or intensity of these natural upheavals on the planet have gone off track. The season is out-of-wack! It’s winter and Texas has reasonably warm temperatures with no sign of winter really setting in.
400 Parts per Million (PPM) is how carbon is measured in the atmosphere. 400 PPM is also potentially the 1 degree centigrade mark of rise in temperature. Most scientists and climate watchers have long believed 2 degrees was to be the cutoff point. So any hope of sustaining, to the 2 degree levels is gone.
On our current track we are likely to go to up to 4 degrees warmer by the turn of the century, and that is a conservative estimate.
You are also probably aware that some of the reason for these changing events and the damage they bring with them are due directly to carbon emissions. The use of fossil fuel to generate energy and transportation are the biggest emitters of Co2. Again most really have only a vague idea of the amount of emissions.
The US Energy Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions gives a good sum up for Energy production and Transportation.
So how many PPM in a Metric ton of Carbon? (Found this interesting calculator) Spoiler Alert! And the answer is 400 Gram/Ton. That was just my curiosity getting the better of me!
Here is an interesting link to Co2 Earth a real time view for the curious…
So what does all this me to us? We are living dangerously!
The next thing that comes to mind are we going to wait for Government action? It may be a long wait. The COP 21 conference has come to a close…20 countries and 20 Billionaires have committed billions in investment for clean energy. We have the signs of the making it. 500 + institutions are totaling net assets in excess of $3.4 Trillion.
That brings it to us! You and I. What are we going to do about this? Can we do something, anything?
Yes We Can! Not to sound political, but trying to be practical. Do you know that we are responsible for carbon emissions as we use energy? At home, work and or travel. Seen your electric bill lately? How many kWh did you consume the last month? And remember every 2000 kWh of energy used roughly translates to 1 Metric ton of carbon emission, as your footprint! The average US household energy use is 24MT and for a small business of 5 workers is roughly 350MT. Energy efficiency reduces the energy you use, reduces carbon emissions and saves you money! Why not do it? Even just little efforts such as reducing the temperature in the home or office, turning off lights, unplugging devices adds up to a cool 20% just sitting out there.
Begin by saving just 1 kWh a day. The 1 kWh Advantage! As we say it with CarbonGobbler at GreenHatters.
The US has over 125 million homes. Imagine saving of just 1 kWh a day in each of the homes. That is roughly 62,500 Metric tons of carbon emissions reduced. Imagine that!
In a year over 25 million metric tons saved. A small dent in the US energy related emissions of over 6.3 billion metric tons. But a START for sure! It is the small things that we can do that can make the difference, however small it matters.