Going Carbon Neutral

In a recent interview about his film An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore was asked about his personal itinerary that involves tons of travel and therefore tons of CO2 emissions which are the focus of the film’s global warming theme. His response was that he makes an effort to be “carbon neutral.” But what exactly does this mean and how does one go about doing it?

Carbon neutral has to do with carbon dioxide, a naturally occurring gas and a byproduct of worldwide human activity such as burning gasoline and other fuels. Its increasing levels in the earth’s atmosphere fuel the argument that humans are contributing to unnatural or accelerated climate change, often referred to as global warming. Regulatory responses exist in examples like the Kyoto Protocol and the UK and European Union’s Emission Trading Scheme but the new buzz phrase carbon neutral takes emissions responsibility into the hands of the individual.

Scientists differ over degrees of global warming, wrestling with uncertain forecasts for the planet. Whether or not the projections are correct, it is certain that the environment around the globe is experiencing changes at rapid rates. Many of these changes can be connected to increased carbon dioxide emissions. A scientific and political consensus is starting to gel that the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 60% should occur over the next half century at most.

So back to carbon neutral - it means emitting no net carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A plant is said to be carbon neutral if the carbon dioxide it absorbs equals the carbon dioxide it emits when burned. Humans don’t absorb carbon dioxide, but we produce it in tons. Human carbon dioxide emissions are growing at the fastest rate ever. An average person worldwide causes 4 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Driving an SUV emits 5 tons of carbon dioxide annually (10,000 miles / 18 miles per gallon / source: The Wall Street Journal). The average American produces 22 tons of carbon dioxide per year. It all adds up.