The Carbon Footprint of an Oregon Teen

My name is Eleanor Solomon, and I’m an intern at Oregon Wild. I’m fourteen years old, and I’m interested in how my daily activities and lifestyle affect the environment. Currently, one of the biggest environmental challenges is global warming.

Well, what is global warming anyway?

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution in 1750, people have been increasing the Earth’s temperature by creating greenhouse gases, or GHGs, which are mostly made up of carbon, but also include methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases. These human-induced greenhouse gases mostly come from burning fossil fuels, which are dead organisms that were trapped underground for so long they transformed into high-energy carbon substances. We use them to power cars and other transportation (gasoline), and for electricity (coal and natural gas). The burning of fossil fuels for energy releases GHGs into the air, accounting for 90% of the GHGs in the United States. Climate change is happening because of the increase in the GHGs.

Why? Basically, the sun shines rays towards the Earth that are short, fast waves, and they can penetrate our atmosphere. Some of these energy-waves are reflected back into space from the atmosphere, but 70% of them stay on Earth. Later, the Earth emits this energy back out of the atmosphere using longer, slower wave lengths, since the Earth is cooler than the sun. However, this is where greenhouse gases come in. When the slower energy waves come from the surface of Earth, GHGs in the air absorb the energy before it can get out of the atmosphere. The GHGs later release this energy back into our atmosphere, keeping the sun’s energy and heat in our atmosphere. This creates the “greenhouse effect.”

The US alone accounts for 19% of the GHGs in the atmosphere, second only to China with 23%. To put this difference into perspective, the US has 4% of the world’s population, and China has 19% of the world’s population. The reason? Each person in the US has a huge carbon footprint. A carbon footprint is the measure in tons/kg of how much carbon, or carbon equivalent, CO2e, a person, household, or organization produces.

There are many carbon footprint calculators out there, but I decided to calculate my own and see which activities make the most carbon in my daily life, and which are not so bad. Based on a book on calculating your carbon footprint called How Bad Are Bananas?, I looked at how much each carbon each activity produced. I then estimated how many times I did that activity per year to get a total carbon footprint for the year for each activity. I have organized these into general categories, which I ordered from lowest carbon footprint to largest carbon footprint. Here is what I found:

Entertainment = 252 kg

  • Books = 12 kg
  • Computer = 720 kg for production, 51 kg for electricity, 44 kg for Internet use
  • Phone Texting = .05 kg

Production of clothes = 255 kg

  • 6 pants = 36 kg
  • 25 shirts/jackets = 100 kg
  • 6 shoes = 69 kg
  • Other types of clothing = 50 kg

Water = 450 kg

  • Tap water for drinking, etc. = 23 kg
  • Taking a hot shower every day = 292 kg   
  • Washing machine = 51 kg
  • Dishwasher = 84 kg

Food = 1018 kg (per serving samples are provided below each meal)

  • Breakfast = 277 kg
  • Lunch = 321 kg (Sandwich .8 kg) (Apple .08 kg)
  • Dinner = 237 kg (Pasta .5 kg) (Salad .15 kg)
  • Dessert = 183 kg (Bowl of ice cream .5 kg)

Household = 1644 kg

  • Electricity = 309 kg
  • Natural Gas = 660 kg
  • Microwave = 39 kg
  • Dryer = 159 kg
  • Oven = 38 kg
  • Stove-top burners = 71 kg
  • Fridge-Freezer = 116 kg

Ground Transportation = 1766 kg

  • Driving to and from school (7 miles) = 1,606 kg
  • Riding the bus to sports activities (60 miles) = 72 kg
  • Driving to other errands/activities outside of school (10 miles) = 88 kg

Air Travel = 4000 kg

  • Traveling on a 1500 mile flight roundtrip in economy class = 2400 kg
  • Traveling on a 1000 mile flight roundtrip in economy class = 1600 kg    

Grand Total = 9,385 kg CO2e OR 9 tonnes

 

The average person in the US averages at 20 tons of CO2e per year compared with a world average of 4 tons. While my carbon footprint fell well below the national average, there were some aspects of the footprint that could not be calculated by my daily life, such as just having access to the amenities we are provided in the US (libraries, roads, police, etc.)

What does this mean anyway? This pie chart shows that the biggest offenders of my carbon footprint are air travel, transportation, and household. Air travel accounts for 42% of my carbon footprint, yet I only went on two relatively short flights in one year. Ground transportation is also very carbon-heavy, and household energies such as electricity and natural gas come in as a close second. What can we do to reduce the footprint of air travel, transportation, and household?

  1. Try to reduce the amount of flights you take. Consider taking the train or a bus instead!
  2. Bike, walk, or ride the bus whenever possible.
  3. Hold out on buying a new car or opt to buy used. 40 percent of the carbon footprint of a car is in its manufacture and maintenance.
  4. If you do get a new car, buy a hybrid, electric, or fuel-efficient car.
  5. Avoid speeding. Speeding increases carbon emissions because it's not fuel-efficient. (It’s safer, too!)
  6. When household appliances such as heating or cooling systems, lightbulbs, electronics, etc. need to be replaced, purchase Energy Star appliances. They save money and energy and are a government-approved organization for the environment.
  7. Turn off lights when you leave rooms, and use natural light whenever possible.
  8. Plant trees! Doing so helps offset your carbon footprint because trees turn carbon into oxygen.