Carbon Calculator
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This calculator is designed to make it easy to work out your personal annual carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions. It is quite easy, you fill in the required information and the tables will calculate the figures for you. What we are going to do is use your domestic fuel bills for a year, get your annual car mileage (odometer readings), and sum up your train and air travel in a way which is easy to estimate. You can then enter these pieces of information into the tables, which will calculate the CO2 emissions produced by each activity, and give you a sum total. Simply fill in the white boxes with the required information being sure to exclude spaces or characters [i.e. 24000 instead of $24,000]. The totals and related boxes will automatically update as you proceed, including the grand total table at the end of this page.
Like all fuels, wood is essentially carbon. Burning it emits carbon dioxide, and growing it absorbs carbon dioxide. A new tree absorbs the carbon dioxide emitted by burning an old tree. But there is a time delay of around 25 years. This is nothing compared with fossil fuels, but may be significant in the current global climate change situation. Therefore in this calculator wood is not considered carbon neutral, but you are only "charged" for half the emissions produced by burning it. If you procure wood by the ton or lb, enter the figures in the table below. (1 ton = 2,000 lb.) If you obtain wood by the "load" and the weight is not known, it is possible to estimate your usage. I would guess that an average stove uses 22kg of wood in an evening or half a day. If you run your stove every evening for half the year (180 evenings), you burn nearly 4,000 lbs of wood per year. Using this as a benchmark, estimate your wood use and fill in the table.
You may be able to find your last year's mileage (odometer reading) from certain vehicle records or mechanic's documentation. Enter the appropriate recorded mileage for your car in the table below. The table will subtract the previous from the latest recorded mileage to give your last year's mileage. Make a guess at your "share" of the car's use, and enter this in the table below, as a decimal. For example if you are the sole user of the car, enter your "share" as 1. If your share is 50%, enter 0.5; for one third enter 0.33, for 25% enter 0.25, etc. If you prefer or if you do not have your last year's mileage, you can estimate the carbon emissions of your car using the Trip section below.
You can use the following table to list the trips you have made in the last year. Enter the distance (or flight durations in the case of air travel), the number of ways, i.e. "1" for 1-way or "2" for 2-way, your share of a car trip as a decimal (see under "Car" for explanation of decimal), and the times per year you make the trip(e.g. "50" for once per working week, "250" for 5 working days by 50 working weeks, etc.). The table on the next page has room for 10 trip listings under each section. If you need more space, simply list your trips on a separate sheet of paper, add up the miles, and enter them into the table.
This table gives you a chance to estimate your carbon dioxide emissions specifically from leisure activities that use fossil fuels, such as motor-boating, jet-skiing, flying and motor-racing. Columns are given for gasoline, diesel and kerosene (aircraft fuel). As the possibilities and patterns of use are so variable, it is necessary for you to work out your rough fuel usage per month or year, then enter this into the table below
We would like to thank Resurgence magazine for their permission to let us use their carbon calculator. Resurgence magazine presents information on sustainability, cultural diversity, economics and climate change. We encourage people to take personal responsibility for reducing their carbon footprint by making changes to their lifestyle and living more lightly on the earth. |