Originally Posted by
gerv
You suspect your methods use less. And they probably do. The book points out that if you were say a big eater of asparagus flown in from Peru and maybe those tomatoes grown in Canada in greenhouses in the winter, you'd probably be wrong.
But I'm guessing a lot of your fuel comes from oatmeal and bananas... both pretty reasonable food sources from a resource usage point of view. I find many of those high energy vegetables like tomatoes don't taste too good. And I'm not fond of cheeseburgers.
The book also confirmed that my annual plane trip cross country is comparable to a short car commute in an efficient car over a whole year.
Of course some of the computations are not accurate, mainly because there are just too many possible factors involved, but it's good to look at the big picture of our transportation, food, leisure, travels.... our whole lives.
I feel better now knowing that there are smarmy Prius owners out there who may have a lower carbon footprint than myself.
I think your footprint would still be smaller if you ate asparagus and cheeseburgers, but rode a bike instead of a car.
The consensus seems to be that the best ways to reduce your personal carbon footprint, in order from greatest reduction to least, are:
- Reduce energy consumption in your home through insulation, conservation and efficiency.
- Become a vegetarian or at least eat less meat.
- Quit driving a car, or at least drive a lot less..
Home energy savings are expensive and a lot of work, and I would miss cheeseburgers a LOT if I gave up meat. But the great thing about Number 3 is that I get to do less of an activity that I don't like, and more of something I do enjoy.