Global Warming And Your Car
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Adam: Burning one gallon of gas creates 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, and the average car emits about six tons of carbon dioxide every year. But averages don't tell you much about your own carbon footprint, which is as personal as your fingerprint. What you drive, how you drive, and how much you drive all make a huge difference. Some people reliably get 58 miles per gallon in their hybrids, which perform best in city driving. Others like to peel out of stoplights in their Maseratis, and they're lucky to get eight miles per gallon. |
Tom: Heating a house produces about four tons of carbon dioxide per year on a national average, in addition to eight tons for electricity use.
Adam: That hot tub, I'm sorry to say, ranks somewhere between the Charles River and Three Mile Island in terms of environmental disasters. The only things worse are plasma TVs. Car Talk: Plasma TV's? Really? Adam: Well, a plasma TV isn't quite as bad as a hot tub, but, of course, there are lot more plasma TVs out there. A large-screen plasma can suck the same amount of juice as a big refrigerator. When Los Angeles experienced blackouts last summer, one of the culprits was plasma TVs. The utilities underestimated the demand for electricity, because they didn't factor in how much more power-hungry consumer electronics have become. Let's run through a few numbers. According to Nielsen, in the average home a television is on for eight hours every day. A plasma TV can draw 400 watts of power. That adds up to about 1,500 pounds of carbon dioxide over the course of a year. Tom: The average hot tub, on the other hand, uses about 2,300-kilowatt hours per year, producing more than 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. Tell us again where we're supposed to ship that deluxe test model? What do you guys do with all that stuff people send you, anyway? |
Tom: Why, thank you. I'll keep it in NativeEnergy's memorabilia museum - we really do need to minimize unnecessary carbon dioxide emissions. Adam: Excellent aromatics with a fine aftertaste. I like it. |
Tom: Think of offsetting as a counterbalance. You're simply taking an extra step to reduce your impact on the environment. Assuming you need to drive, you can't stop your car from emitting carbon dioxide. But, you can fund the construction of new, renewable energy projects that will displace carbon emissions from other sources, like coal burning electricity plants. That's the offset, which is done on your behalf.
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Adam: Yes, there's nothing mysterious about it. We're a retailer. We buy wholesale, sell to customers, and add enough margin to keep our web servers running. Solar panel makers, wind farm developers, biodiesel manufacturers - all are for-profit enterprises. We think it's a good thing when companies can sustain themselves by providing an environmental service. Climate change is a long-term problem, and we hope to be around for the long term as well.
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Adam: We at TerraPass drive biodiesel VW buses created as part of a make-work program for unemployed manatees. The seat covers are hemp. Seriously, though, retail companies - and that includes carbon offset retailers like Terrapass - generally don't disclose their costs. Instead, we suggest that people look for good value when they purchase offsets. When you buy a pair of jeans, do you ask how much they cost to make? Or do you look for price and quality?It's easy to compare offset prices, which are measured in dollars per ton of carbon dioxide. It's trickier to assess quality, but you should look for standards such as independent auditing and project verification.
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Adam: Yes. We open up our books to an independent third party, the Center for Resource Solutions. Not only does CRS ensure that we actually meet all of our carbon obligations, they also review our marketing language and require that we make an official disclosure of the projects we fund. We publish an annual verification report. Tom: An independent certified public accountant confirms that we are providing our customers exactly what they bought. The CPA's report for 2006 will be on our web site shortly, and all of our customers receive a receipt from Clean Air - Cool Planet, our non-profit partner who permanently retires all NativeEnergy offsets. You can check out some pictures of the clean new energy projects our customers have helped build by buying offsets. |
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Adam: Offsets from TerraPass are tax-deductible for businesses, because they are an expense. They are not deductible for individuals. I do think it's important to stress that offsets are not a donation. They are a purchase of carbon reductions. Certainly the motivation behind people's purchase of them is charitable, and we applaud that. But offsets are also a quantifiable item subject to quality standards, just like other items you can buy. I point this out because I think it's important for people to have a retail mindset when they buy offsets. They should demand a good value. |
Tom: Even Priuses emit carbon dioxide. We all need to reduce our energy use as much as we possibly can. Offsetting is the only way to do something about the energy we can't avoid using, and when the offsets come from truly new projects that offsetting helps build, we are helping to develop a larger, more diverse supply of American energy. Adam: Carbon offsets are one part of a story that includes conservation, technology, and government action. We should all seek to reduce our carbon footprints by cutting back on the amount of fuel and energy we consume. But we can't cut back to zero, which is why carbon offsets have a role to play. |
Tom: Only the methane component is a greenhouse gas. To determine the volume of methane in Tommy's emissions, please have Tommy light each emission over the course of a week, and report to us the number of times there is a blue flame, a yellow flame, or no flame. With a sample, of course, we could have our staff flatulence analysts, Ben Dover and Les Havasnif, do a full chromatographic work up. Adam: Sounds like Tommy is a Superfund site. We may be able to recommend a good doctor. |
Adam: A major part of the value of offsets is that they raise your awareness of your own carbon footprint. I encourage people to get started by calculating their footprints from driving, flying and home energy use. Then figure out ways to lower that footprint through conservation. People don't realize how easy it is to conserve. Just by changing your light bulbs, you can save energy and money. Tom: Global warming is serious, and it is happening now. While voluntary purchases of offsets can play an important role in reducing the threat, we also need a massive international effort to move from a fossil fuel-based economy to a renewable energy economy. Please do everything you can to help get us headed in a new direction, and encourage your representatives in state and federal government to muster and use the political will to make that happen. |