New Online Carbon Footprint Calculator

New Online Carbon Footprint Calculator

April 2008  - For Earth Day 2008, the Nature 
Conservancy of Texas is offering an online carbon calculator so people can 
make positive daily choices to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that 
contribute to global warming. 
Educators can use the calculator to help young Texans understand their 
individual roles in supporting a healthy planet. 
The Conservancy's carbon calculator demonstrates how personal choices 
increase or decrease the user's impact on global warming by measuring that 
person's or family's carbon footprint. 
The footprint is the amount of greenhouse gas produced by use of 
transportation, electric energy consumption and dietary choices. The 
calculator puts these choices in context, allowing people to better 
understand the impacts of their actions. 
Jim Bergan, Ph.D., director of science for The Nature Conservancy of 
Texas, said, "In Texas, scientists are documenting the threats from global 
warming and climate change. While some patterns are within the range of 
historic variability, in recent years our state has faced severe drought, 
more intense storms and hurricanes, and the effects of rising sea level 
along the Gulf Coast." 
      
"This is a useful online tool to inform the public of the effects of 
global climate change," he said. "It explains how some of our actions 
contribute to rising temperatures and helps us make simple, everyday 
choices that, when multiplied by millions of Texans, can significantly 
benefit all of us." 
The Carbon Footprint Calculator also provides tips for reducing emissions 
and allows people to compare their overall impact to national and 
worldwide averages. 
The tool estimates emissions of all greenhouse gases, not just carbon 
dioxide. Because some of the gases that drive climate change can linger in 
the atmosphere for a century or more, today's actions can make a big 
difference to future generations. 
The calculator uses a visually accessible format, including graphs and 
charts, and can be completed in a few minutes. It provides immediate 
visual feedback to users about the impact of their behaviors. 
The calculations have been reviewed and verified by Conservancy climate 
change scientists and are based on data from sources including the World 
Resources Institute and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 
"Once people use the carbon calculator and get a sense of what their 
impact is, there are many steps they can take to reduce their 
contributions to climate change," Bergan said. "With the great distances 
we travel within the borders of Texas, we can choose to teleconference 
instead of driving or flying to business meetings, reducing carbon 
emissions while saving on the high cost of fuel." 
"Developing this mindset is not a partisan issue, it's about optimizing 
household economies and bettering our environment," he said. 
“We can install programmable thermostats in our homes and offices for more 
efficient cooling in the hot summer months, and plant native Texas trees 
to provide shade," Bergan added. "We can also take better advantage of our 
delicious and abundant Texas-grown produce, meats, fish, shrimp and other 
foods, which would result in fewer emissions when compared to food 
transported from out of state." 
In addition to public awareness efforts such as the Carbon Footprint 
Calculator, the Conservancy works to reduce sources of global warming by 
promoting policies to reduce emissions from fossil fuels and by stemming 
deforestation. 
Conservancy scientists in Texas are working in the Hill Country, on the 
Gulf Coast, in the Trans Pecos of West Texas, in the Big Thicket, in the 
Rio Grande Valley and other parts of the state to build networks of 
conservation areas that help plants and animals move into new locations as 
the old ones become uninhabitable. 
The organization says these projects improve the ability of ecosystems to 
cope with warmer temperatures, altered precipitation, rising sea levels 
and other changes.

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