Whose Carbon Footprint Is the Smallest

Activity 2:

Have students work on the activity below in pairs/groups. Be sure to print answers on separate page from the quiz. Before handing out the answer, write down all three characters on board. Have students list off the good traits and the bad traits that would increase a carbon footprint. Then have them vote on who they believe has the biggest and smallest footprint. Hand out answer and discuss.

Whose Carbon Footprint Is the Smallest?

Guess who is living green and whose carbon footprint is to blame for drowning polar bears and worse: Is it the Nature Buff, the well-traveled Jetsetter, or the Urban Hipster? Take notes on their good decisions and their non-eco friendly ones. How do you stack up?

1. THE URBAN HIPSTER
“I eat out way too much. I drink bottled water. I do the club scene a lot. Am I busted?” —Sarah, 22, Magazine editor
2. THE NATURE BUFF
“Even my cappuccino maker and my razor are solar-powered.” —Jake, 33, land-conservation program manager
3. THE JETSETTER
“I’ve never learned how to drive. I always use public transportation.” —Rachel, 29 Programming manager
1. THE URBAN HIPSTER
Sarah is too exhausted after a day at work in Pittsburghto think about cooking, much less the environment. She’s a classic work-hard/play-hard person, and she chills by going out with friends to Movies and dance clubs.
LIVES: In an 835-square-foot duplex with a friend. The late-1800s building does not have air-conditioning, energy-efficient windows, or energy-saving insulation. Sarah’s roommate insists that the thermostat hover at 58 degrees, even in the winter, to keep utility costs down, but they haven’t switched to the other classic saver, compact fluorescent bulbs.
DRIVES: A 1994 Nissan Sentra (30 mpg) about twice a month to Target to stock up on basic necessities. Otherwise, she takes the bus two miles to work to avoid expensive downtown parking. From work, she walks a few blocks to shop for groceries and other necessities.
EATS: A Healthy Choice lunch most days, brought from her home freezer. She eats out about twice a week, orders takeout another two days a week, and cooks quick-fix chicken or veggies the other days. Drinks a lot of bottled water, both at home and at work.
WEARS:Outfits from Macy’s, and casual, fun clothes from American Eagle or Old Navy. She buys what she likes and what she can afford (“I’m not a shopaholic”). She doesn’t pay attention to whether a sweater is made in Illinois or India.
DOES:Pricey Sushi dinners with friends and midnight runs to McDonalds (she orders a salad and small order of french-fries) as after-hours indulgences, as well as dance clubs every weekend. “That’s what you do in your 20s, isn’t it?”
2. THE Nature Buff
Jake, a back-to-the-land true believer, chucked his career as a lawyer in New York City, then volunteered for The Nature Conservancy in Colorado (which eventually hired him).
LIVES: In a 2000-square-foot cabin at 9200 feet, so far from the nearest town that he’s forced to live off the grid, meaning everything from his razor to the cappuccino maker is powered by solar panels. If it has been cloudy, he revs up a generator (three days a year at most) to charge the solar batteries.
HE ALSO HAS: A wood stove for heat (powered by trees he and his girlfriend cut from their property) and propane for the cook stove, radiant floor heat, and hot water.
DRIVES: A Subaru WRX (25 mpg) 18 miles each way to his job and the grocery store in Boulder. He drives around the state on business, sometimes in a Prius that his employer loans out.
EATS: Organic fruits and vegetables, some from as far away as New Zealand, although he’s trying to buy more locally. He doesn’t eat out or buy packaged foods much and tries to stay away from beef, since cows and other livestock contribute serious greenhouse gases to the environment.
WEARS:Dressy pants and Nice shirt to work, sometimes from the second hand shop (like Salvation Army), sometimes brand-new. For play, it’s Patagonia fleece. “I saw a website that talked about sustainable clothing, but I just don’t like that hippie stuff.”
DOES: Nordic skiing, hiking, cycling outside his back door. He also competes in ski races (including one in Anchorage, AK).
3. THE Jetsetter
Rachel is part homebody, part globe-trotter, and considers herself more eco-conscious than most people. When not traveling for fun or her job with a Hong Kong-based company that makes eco-friendly textiles, she’s more likely to be with her boyfriend at a ukelele concert than at a dance club.
LIVES: In a three-bedroom townhouse in Queens, NY, attached to other houses on the block, with her parents. They keep the thermostat fixed between 68 and 70 degrees and turn it off when they leave the house. She doesn’t use air-conditioning. She does indulge in long, hot baths and showers — sometimes twice a day to stay warm in the winter.
DRIVES: Doesn’t know how, so she walks 15 minutes to the subway, which she rides for 35 minutes to work. Occasionally, she hails a cab if she’s running late for a meeting.
EATS: Takeout and restaurant food roughly four times a week. “I cringe at all the plastic and Styrofoam containers,” she says. She eats meat, though not every day. Eating virtue: No bottled water (“I drink water warm”).
WEARS: “I’d rather save up and buy a better-quality piece than buy a bunch of cheaper things that don’t last.”
DOES: Enviro-studies. She recently earned a certificate in conservation biology from ColumbiaUniversity. During a field trip to Brazil, she caught travel fever and last year alone went to China, Hong Kong, Germany, Washington, Utah, Brazil, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. “I feel bad about those trips,” she says, knowing they make her a carbon offender. But she tries to make up for it by being conscientious about reducing, reusing, and recycling.

See if you guessed right (for the record, driving, flying, heating your place, and using electricity are the heaviest-weight carbon offenders. What you eat and buy generally makes a more subtle, but still important, difference).
The Judge
Robert Henson, author of The Rough Guide to Climate Change and a writer at the NationalCenter for Atmospheric Research, weighed these women’s eco-virtues against their eco-vices.
Jake: the biggest footprint
WHY: Big-city dwelling is often more eco-friendly than living elsewhere. “Rachel gets major credit for taking public transportation and sharing a townhouse — the common walls keep energy costs lower than they might otherwise be,” says Henson. Rachel’s fashion approach (buying fewer but higher-quality clothes) is also eco-smart.
But Rachel’s wanderlust caused her footprint to balloon well above average: One flight from New York to Shanghai and back produces more greenhouse gas per person than a year’s worth of typical driving. If she worked some of her pleasure trips in with her business flights, she could make a huge difference, says Henson. The next best thing is to purchase carbon offsets (you pay a company to do something green-virtuous) to assuage guilt and lighten your eco-load.
Jake: midsize footprint
WHY: He’d be the winner if not for the fact that he burns so many tons of fossil fuels commuting from his rustic home to the city. “If he got a small hybrid for everyday commuting, he could cut the biggest part of her carbon footprint by a third or more,” says Henson. Jake gets climate points for avoiding beef — the average American eats more than 60 pounds of it a year, and those cows generate a lot of greenhouse gas, both directly and indirectly. On the downside, as Jake himself points out, he indulges in organic veggies grown halfway around the world — and shipped as far to his table. “A few more trips to the farmer’s market would help freshen his diet and further reduce his carbon footprint,” Henson says.
The eco-winner: Sarah- the smallest footprint
WHY: You don’t have to nix nights out on the town just to live lightly on the planet. Taking the bus to work, walking to get groceries, and sharing a modest duplex with a friend score her beaucoup eco-points. One simple step — putting in compact fluorescent lights — would seriously lower emissions and minimize her utility bill. And if she signed up for her power company’s wind-power option, she could make her electricity emissions-free. One of Sarah’s small indulgences — bottled water — may be her biggest climatic transgression, Henson says, considering the fuels that go into the plastic and the energy used in shipping. Tap filters or in-refrigerator jugs would give Sarah fresh water without the extra emissions.

Source:

Moran, Susan. "Whose Carbon Footprint Is the Smallest?." Marie Claire31 Aug 200812 Dec 2008 <