[MCN] improving your carbon footprint at home

paul wheaton paul at richsoil.com
Fri Jul 7 15:38:55 EDT 2017 

Abby,

Thanks for reading my stuff!

Summertime light bulb energy use is extremely tiny.   So I am going to
set that aside.

Focusing on all year light bulb use, the average american can reduce
their lightbulb energy footprint by 85% just by using lighting in a
smarter way.   https://permies.com/t/31744  - therefore, this sort of
information should always appear before the discussion gets going
about incandescent vs. LED.

In the end, if you wish to reduce your carbon footprint, I would
strongly suggest a focus on the biggest causes of carbon footprint.
In montana, this is heat.   And the biggest carbon problem is with
people using electric heat.

Getting a family to move from electric heat to a rocket mass heater
reduces one's carbon footprint as much as parking 7 cars.

As for LED lights in montana: https://permies.com/t/58990


If there is going to be a push for local food, I would like to
strongly suggest organic "hyper local":  supporting the in-town
gardens that people can walk or bike to.   As magnificent as the
missoula farmer's market it, and how that shows off that missoula is,
indeed, the most awesome city in america, the petroleum/carbon
footprint turns out to actually be the opposite of what most people
think.

https://permies.com/t/3679


There is a lot of good stuff in your buckets.   At the same time ...
uh ....   well ... uh ....    I would like to suggest that you pencil
out the annual (or lifetime) carbon footprint reduction for each item.
   And then prorate the emphasis for items from there.

On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 12:37 PM, Abby Huseth
<abby at climatesmartmissoula.org> wrote:
> Hi Paul,
>
> I appreciate your perspective. We're happy to re-visit the lightbulb
> conversation - right now we're just focused on summer heat and keeping cool!
> Climate Smart Missoula certainly believes in a comprehensive approach to
> climate mitigation, via both individual actions as well as collective
> advocacy on a wide range of issues in addition to energy conservation. If
> you haven't already, check out our community climate action plan which
> outlines goals around a variety of "buckets" or focus areas, including local
> food and ag, transportation, zero waste, and more. The plan is two years old
> now, and there's lots of space for people in the community to keep improving
> on it and pushing things forward. Home energy conservation is just one piece
> of this larger community-wide effort we know is needed - and hopefully it's
> a gateway to greater engagement with all of these important climate-related
> issues.
>
> Best,
> Abby
>
>
> ----
> Abby Huseth
> Program Associate, Climate Smart Missoula
> abby at climatesmartmissoula.org
> O: (406) 926-2847
> C: (650) 922-3250
>
> ClimateSmartMissoula.org
> Find us on Facebook
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 3:49 PM, paul wheaton <paul at richsoil.com> wrote:
>>
>> Abby,
>>
>> I suspect that you will entirely ignore what I am about to say.
>>
>> I applaud your efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses.   And, I would
>> like to make a few suggestions that will have about ten times greater
>> impact than all of the suggestions on your website combined.
>>
>> For people that are on the grid, in montana .... the light bulb thing
>> ... okay, this is gonna sound really weird, but ....    an
>> incandescent light bulb is actually a rather efficient form of heat.
>> And in the winter, in montana, we need heat and light.   So for
>> somebody that has electric heat (and arguably, natural gas) you can
>> save 50% to 90% on your electric heat bill by smart use of
>> incandescent light.
>>
>> Here is a video where a single incandescent light cut 87% off of my
>> electric heat bill:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqJoXyBuxRw
>>
>> and here is my ted talk that covers this a bit more:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_7I-hgtQo4&t=721s
>>
>>
>> Instead of teaching people about low flow shower heads, I would teach
>> people on going "poo-less".   Their shower time tends to shrink from
>> the national average of 8 minutes per shower to 1.5 minutes.   And
>> they also tend to need to shower less often.
>>
>>
>>
>> Agriculture is nearly half of each person's carbon footprint (and
>> petroleum footprint).   Missoula is the garden city.  Geoff Lawton
>> says "all of the world's problems can be solved in a garden."   While
>> that is not entirely true, there is a lot of truth to it in this case.
>>
>>
>> More:
>>
>> https://permies.com/t/51417
>> https://permies.com/t/60481
>> https://permies.com/t/3069
>> https://permies.com/t/2446
>> https://permies.com/missoula
>>
>>
>>
>> The important thing is that each adult is responsible for about 60
>> tons of CO2 per year.   If futzing with lightbulbs will make more than
>> a 1% difference in somebody's carbon footprint, I think they first
>> need to learn about how to bring a light bulb closer to the human.
>> But if a person is using electric heat, we can carve off 40 to 45 tons
>> per year with some pretty simple stuff.
>>
>>
>> I suspect you will ignore this as a buncha "crazy".   But I feel
>> better having mentioned it.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 2:07 PM, Abby Huseth via
>> Missoula-Community-News <missoula-community-news at bigskynet.org> wrote:
>> > With results from Missoula's first community greenhouse gas emissions
>> > inventory, residential energy use accounts for nearly a *quarter* of our
>> > carbon footprint! Climate Smart Missoula is challenging our community to
>> > cut
>> > wasted energy 10% by 2018, and 20% by 2020. Our collective efforts can
>> > make
>> > a real impact, which is why we've launched our pilot *Energy Smart
>> > Challenge* program.
>> >
>> > Whether you're a renter or homeowner, a student, professional, or
>> > retiree,
>> > the Challenge has something for everyone. When you join, you'll receive
>> > weekly emails with practical tips for home energy savings, with prizes
>> > and
>> > incentives along the way. In June, we started with calculating and
>> > understanding energy use, and this month we're sharing tips to beat the
>> > summer heat without cranking the A/C. It's the perfect time to jump in
>> > and
>> > take concrete action to save energy and shrink our community's carbon
>> > footprint. Your participation in this pilot will help us build a
>> > stronger
>> > program in the future!
>> >
>> > **Learn more and sign up today at
>> > http://www.missoulaclimate.org/energy-smart.html
>> >
>> > **Contact Abby at Climate Smart Missoula with any questions:
>> > abby at climatesmartmissoula.org
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > -----------------
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>>
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