With so much attention focused on environmental issues lately, it seems as if we are constantly barraged with stories about the environmental impact of our actions and the damages done to the planet Earth. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by this kind of ever-present data, so I have broken a few choice facts down into digestible chunks of information for easy reference.

The facts aren’t great, and this isn’t a “look how good we’re doing” piece, rather, it’s the black and white of our impact on our planet. Each fact is backed up with the source I used to find it, so feel free to do a little digging of your own if you’re skeptical or if you’d like to learn more about these issues.

According to Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist, a typical online ‘Search’ generates about 7 grams of carbon dioxide. (Measuring Your Google Search’s Carbon Footprint by CNET.com). Overall, the IT industry produces 2% of global carbon emissions, or the same amount as the airline industry!

Each year over one hundred million trees are harvested and turned into junk mail. (Just the Facts: Junk Mail Facts and Figures from New American Dream and Conservatree). The production and disposal of all of this junk mail ends up using as much energy as do 3 million passenger cars!

Even though phone books are recyclable, people throw 660,000 tons of them into landfills annually (The Story of Phone Books from Earth 911). For every 500 phone books that end up in landfills, we needlessly waste 7000 gallons of water, 463 gallons of oil, 17-31 trees, and 3.06 cubic yards of landfill space.

In 2005, almost two million tons of e-waste were disposed of in landfills. Comprised of old cell phones, computers, television sets and batteries, this e-waste contains hazardous materials including lead and mercury that were never meant to be disposed of in landfills, and pose significant risk to people and the planet. (E-Waste: Harmful Materials from Earth 911).

Of the 215 billion plastic, glass and aluminum beverage bottles and cans sold in the US during 2006, a full 66% (2 out of 3, or 143 billion) were thrown out instead of being recycled. (Beverage Market Data Analysis from The Container Recycling Institute).

There are over 87,000 flights (commercial, cargo, private & military) in the US every single day of the year. (Air Traffic Control: By the Numbers from the National Air Traffic Controllors Association). And according to Boeing’s 2008 Environmental Report, aviation accounts for a full 2% of global man-made carbon dioxide emissions. (Boeing 2008 Environmental Report – page 3).

I’d like to give thanks to Brendan for constantly reminding me of the little things that make for huge environmental problems, and that also probably make Al Gore cry!

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Researchers from Purdue University, Colorado State University, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have published a new map of the US that offers a visual picture of this country’s carbon emissions from roads, factories, power plants and neighborhoods. Developed by Project Vulcan, and sponsored by NASA/DOE under the North American Carbon Project, this high-resolution interactive map shows the release and movement of carbon dioxide in greater detail than has been previously captured.

The interactive map is presented in a 5 minute video on YouTube,? and may be viewed here: Revolutionary CO2 Maps Zoom in on Greenhouse Gas Sources.

According to the April 7 press release about Project Vulcan:

To create the Vulcan maps, the research team developed a method to extract the CO2 information by transforming data on local air pollution, such as carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide emissions, which are tracked by the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and other governmental agencies.

The Vulcan maps are revolutionary in that they track data on an hourly basis, and show carbon emissions in 100 times more detail than has ever been examined. In the past, carbon emissions were estimated according to population levels, and states reported their carbon levels infrequently. When calculating carbon emissions using this old model, the assumption was that highly-populated regions were the biggest carbon emitters, while rural and sparsely populated regions had lower carbon emissions.

According to data compiled from this new model of carbon emissions however, sparsely populated regions can be big greenhouse gas emitters if they are home to coal burning power plants or highways that cut through vast swaths of uninhabited areas. Researchers were surprised to find that the relatively uninhabited San Juan County in New Mexico is number 6 in nationwide carbon emissions. With 2 coal burning power plants in the county, San Juan’s carbon emissions are higher than those of heavily populated areas such as the Washington DC Metro region, New England and New York City. You can view the top 20 carbon emitting counties in the US here.

The Vulcan Project research is groundbreaking on many levels – the merging of various sources of carbon emissions data onto one map, the ability to track the movement of greenhouse gases over time, the inclusion of a variety of sources of carbon emissions, and the level of detail in mapping the data. With all of this information being modeled onto one map, we have a more complete picture of what carbon emissions in the US look like than ever before. Let’s hope that policy makers and public officials take this updated information into account when they consider where and how to make a dent in the carbon dioxide being emitted into our – and other nations’ – atmospheres.

I’ve been meaning to calculate my carbon footprint for several months, but have held off until now because I knew I would be ashamed once I entered my information into the calculators. My shame comes from the 1996 Jeep Cherokee that I was given, and the 70 miles I drive each day back and forth to work. I knew that the combination of an older, gas-guzzling SUV and daily treks up and down the highway would make my carbon emissions high. For the purposes of this blog however, I put my shame and guilt aside and took a few carbon quizzes that let me see where my personal carbon emissions rank compared to the rest of the nation.

The Nature Conservancy Carbon Footprint Calculator was the most in-depth of all the quizzes I tried. They asked questions about my home (energy usage & conservation efforts), my travels (driving & flying), my food choices (meat vs. vegetarian, organic food use), and my recycling efforts. The Nature Conservancy calculator also lets you take the quiz based on the habits of all the people in your house or on just your answers. Once I’d answered all of the questions, my total was calculated with a comparison against the national average. Let’s just say I exceeded that number.

On the Conservation International site, their Carbon Calculator let me decide if I wanted to do a simple calculation or a more detailed analysis of my carbon usage. In addition to asking me basic questions about my lifestyle, this calculator has a feature that tells you how much it will cost if you want to offset your carbon emissions. You can also calculate the carbon footprint of events you plan on throwing (such as weddings) and your vacation plans.

The Environmental Protection Agency has their own Greenhouse Gas Emissions Quiz that asks you questions about your lifestyle, but also provides solutions for how to lower your emissions. First you find out how many pounds of carbon dioxide you produce in a year. Once you’ve completed that section of the quiz, you can fill in boxes that indicate how many fewer pounds of carbon will be produced if you do things like replace incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient bulbs or cut-down on how much you drive. Once you’ve finished the second portion of the quiz, it recalculates your score and lets you know what your overall score would be if you changed your habits.

Filling out these calculators is a good way to gauge your personal carbon use and think of ways to reduce your overall carbon footprint through conservation. And while it’s going to take large-scale change from the government and corporations, any little bit you can do will help bring about greater overall change.