Day 634: Feeling green

[eve_prime]

I just came across this tweet by Dan Price:

The median American produces 15 tons of CO2 emissions a year.

The richest 1% produce 270 tons.

There are people out there dutifully using reusable bags and riding bikes while one person's single private jet ride wipes a lifetime of their CO2 savings.

That sucks, and it's an important point, but I then used the EPA carbon footprint estimator and am happy to report that my own personal carbon footprint is more like 1 ton a year. So that's cool.

I do have a gasoline-fueled car, but I am literally driving only about 1000 miles a year (I hit 500 miles total on my new car just yesterday, and I got it on June 10). Admittedly, before the pandemic I was driving closer to 3000 miles a year; part of that was going to the youth symphony board meetings, which were sometimes relatively far from home (six miles, whee!), and also I was visiting my office a lot more.

Most of my savings comes from living in a place with really clean energy, at least compared with most of the U.S. Most of us here have all-electric homes, and most of our electricity is hydro. I looked it up on our electric utility's website, and here's our current breakdown:

77% hydroelectric
7% nuclear (from Bonneville Power Authority)
6% biomass
6% wind
2% coal
1% natural gas
0.1% solar

Now we just need to make it easier for everyone to have such a naturally green carbon footprint - I'm not making any sacrifices, this is just how I live (and more important, where I live).

(This website says our target should be 3 tons per person, worldwide.)