Whats your carbon footprint?

[mrsflibble]

lol, why have a DAB when you can have a bbc iplayer download program (totally legal) and an ipod?! ipod can charge whilst connected to the PC, doesnt up the PC's electricity load as it's sucking spare power from it...ok so i can't listen directly, but I can get my fave programs downloaded to listen at my leisure.

[Pixie]

Here is a carbon footprint calculator that takes into account if you grow your own veggies etc. The only thing I had to do was figure out my KWH for electricity as my bill is included in rent right now so I had to look on the net to see typical usages. I didn't have to worry about anything else because my water heater and furnace are all electric but there are spaces for gas etc.

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

[Doc]

Must admit, I have a chuckle when I read/hear about carbon footprints.

There was a comedian quoted as saying that he does not have a carbon footprint since he drives or flies everywhere

Unfortunately that is probably the level of understanding so many ignorant people have out there

Doc

[ina]

The only thing I had to do was figure out my KWH for electricity as my bill is included in rent right now

Is that quite common in Canada? A friend of mine lived there for a few years, and it was the same for her. How do they ever expect people to use less energy if you don't have to pay for it directly? Are there any plans for this system to change? I even find it ridiculous that water isn't usually metered in the UK (although that is now changing).

Edited to add: Just started on that carbonfootprint.com calculator - that doesn't accept anything less than 1 flight... You must enter a number of flights between 1 and 100. Argh! Do these people who devise these things every stop to think??? I've already sent them an e-mail...

[ajs88]

this carbonfootprint.com is a bit more realistic i got 4.19 for secondary (food, lifestyle, consumerism) alone, 4.86 in total

[Odsox]

ipod can charge whilst connected to the PC, doesnt up the PC's electricity load as it's sucking spare power from it...

Sorry Mrs F, that's not true.
The extra power needed is minimal but never the less it's still "extra" power.
The amperage that is drawn by your PC is precisely what is required to run your computer at any given time, start up a disk drive and it will draw more amps, use your keyboard and it will draw more amps, connect your ipod and it will ... well you get the picture

[Pixie]

The only thing I had to do was figure out my KWH for electricity as my bill is included in rent right now

Is that quite common in Canada? A friend of mine lived there for a few years, and it was the same for her. How do they ever expect people to use less energy if you don't have to pay for it directly? Are there any plans for this system to change? I even find it ridiculous that water isn't usually metered in the UK (although that is now changing).

If you rent you can choose between a place that has electricity (and usually the other utilities like water, gas etc) included in your rent or pay for rent and utilities seperate. I got this place right out of school so I wanted to keep things as simple as possible in terms of the number of bills I would be recieving every month. Looking at home ownership now though, I will be getting electric and gas bills (my water will likely be well so no water bill!). I think I can handle it now, though.

Even without paying my bills I still try and keep the electric down (I only use the electric for my bar fridge and any cooking that I have to do, everything else I do with sun power). Environmentalism is big so that is the main reasoning behind people keeping their electric consumption down if you don't pay for it seperately.