How to fight climate change... for reals.

[Poindexter]

I am confident that at least once upon a time, part of what is going on in the mid-Atlantic states was thought to be the land sinking. The idea was the ice sheets during the last ice age were very heavy, but ended more or less at Long Island Sound, so the land just south of there was upthrust by the weight up north, and now with the weight removed the mid Atlantic states are sinking back towards their normal.

This was a current idea (lips moving) 24 years ago and may or may not fit with current data anymore. I haven't kept up with that one.

I do agree with Ashful about single use packaging. We are doing 'better' at my house than we have done in the past. Rather than buy another freezer we have started canning, primarily because there is no ongoing maintenance cost for canned goods, and canning jars are reusable.

I do 'wish' or 'notice' that commercially canned items like olives or beans or capers could be packaged in jars reusable at the home level or recycled, but the jars they are currently in can only be recycled. Salsa. Anything that pops when you open the jar was commerically canned, though typically at pressure higher (and time shorter) than safely attainable with a home pressure canner. But those darn jars could be reused in a home canner if lids were available. BRB

I have a couple commercial jars in my fridge right now that could take standard canning lids, but the threads won't accept regular mason jar bands.

 

[SpaceBus]

Or, eating 50% less standard oreos and the oreo factory having to charge twice as much per oreo to pay the bills.

Sounds like a bad business model for the consumer.

Agreed, but even more than disinformation, I think there are very high population densities in areas that have not yet been strongly affected by climate change. Droughts, wildfires, infrastructure-collapsing heat and cold waves... these are all things that we in the northeast see on the news, but haven't experienced in any way similar to those in California, Texas, or even midwest. It's very easy from here to say, "sucks to be them", and then forget about it.

The effects of the sinking mid-Atlantic shore coastline may be the first that the folks in our adjacent states see, on any scale similar to the effects that have already awakened some sense of urgency in other parts of the world. Stronger hurricanes don't help, but with their most frequent and expensive damage happening south of the largest population densities, again most have the luxury of only feeling them thru empathy.

Among the many smart things woodgeek said at the top of this thread, the link between personal (or company) finance and climate change will be the driver of any real change. This country has always, and always will, voted with their wallet.

You bring up a good point, North America has been largely insulated from a lot of climate change due to geography and time. Humans just haven't been destroying the ecosystems for agriculture or metallurgy quite as long as the "Old World" or "Far East". Latin America is even more insulated by having smaller populations and more wilderness. People living in the Midwest would be a notable exception, evidenced by the "dust bow". The whole continent has more or less been in a drought since at least the 60's, at least compared to historical precipitation data. As native ecosystems are destroyed for human habitation and agriculture the water goes with it. Early settlers believed "rain follows the plow" and ripped up all of the deep rooted native grasses of the Midwest, which had been cultivated by native peoples pursuing buffalo. Since the Midwest didn't get much rain to start with, the natives used controlled burns to keep the trees from taking over the savannah, the native grasses were the only thing holding moisture in the soil. After a few generations conditions in the Midwest were just right to bring out the Dust Bowl, and the rest is history. Grasslands take hold when there is not enough consistent sunlight or rainfall to support trees, but on the other side of the same coin forests can bring rain once established.
I'm rambling a bit, but hopefully the point made it.

 

[SpaceBus]

true, but that is also in part because consumers don't (want to) think about alternatives. They gobble up what is offered.
Market push vs market pull.
And the latter is why the OP is contemplating pulling in another way as a consumer. That is to be applauded.

We can't change the economic situation/structure (in a timeframe quick enough to resolve the climate issue, if that is at all possible), but we can make personal choices that contribute to such a change, however slow it will be globally.

So the reason I brought up Standard specifically is because they used their considerable wealth to corner the entire market for energy during the industrial revolution. They made sure the only options for lighting or transportation relied on oil. This is how pretty much all the big corporations operate. We have the illusion of choice and a free market, but in reality corporations lobby the government and no form of control really works. Even when Dupont was sued due to their role in C8 production and dispersal, but nothing really came about. These corporations are both above the law, and influencing the law to stay that way. Consumers don't get any real choice, there are no corporations making market decisions that benefit consumers, and we are given no options. The market for transportation looks full of choice and consumer direction, but everything is based on the early cars that followed the oil boom. There are no actual environmentally friendly transportation options unless you use livestock and own enough land to feed them year round. I cannot go out as a consumer and purchase transportation that doe not rely on fossil fuels. Furthermore my existence as a consumer is almost entirely dictated by fossil fuels. They are the structure upon which our entire culture is based.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I would say the administration is not moving fast enough. I'm finishing up a college course on climate change right now, it has been quite sobering. China has actually done a lot to reduce emissions, and much of their emissions are due to being the manufacturing center for the world. If you distributed all of the factories, steel mills, etc. across the glob according to who buys the products, it really changes the picture. Most Chinese citizens don't buy what they produce.

They can’t buy what they produce. There aren’t enough of them in the accumulation phase of life. The 1 child policy sunk them. China is going to change greatly in the next few years. It’s not going to be pretty.

 

[begreen]

So the reason I brought up Standard specifically is because they used their considerable wealth to corner the entire market for energy during the industrial revolution. They made sure the only options for lighting or transportation relied on oil. This is how pretty much all the big corporations operate.

Case in point. Seattle and Tacoma were linked with an exceptional transportation system before WWI. Each city also had extensive streetcar networks that provided good transport around the city and between them, there was the Interurban. This worked well and affordably. Then GM and the oil companies conspired to replace the electric-driven trolley systems with buses. They started a well-organized and extensive smear campaign against the trolleys, calling them unsafe, slow, limited, and antiquated. Eventually, and probably with some payoffs, they convinced city leaders to replace the trolleys with buses. That was a big mistake because what they gave up was not only a good working system that could have been updated as technology improved, but they also gave up the extensive right of ways that the systems owned. The technology is kind of irrelevant, but the right of way is precious. It's very hard to recover and very expensive, as we now find out when we start putting back in these systems.

 

[begreen]

Another fossil fuel-related gambit is plastics, the stuff most single-use packaging is made from. Of the 9 billion tons of fossil fuel plastic produced since the 1950s, only 9% percent has been recycled, studies have shown. The rest has been buried in landfills, burned, or has polluted land and waterways. The chemical structure of fossil fuel plastic means it can never fully disintegrate and instead breaks down into smaller and smaller particles. We are burying our planet in plastics and no place on earth is now plastics-free. It is in the water we drink and the food we eat, with the consequences unknown.

 

[stoveliker]

So the reason I brought up Standard specifically is because they used their considerable wealth to corner the entire market for energy during the industrial revolution. They made sure the only options for lighting or transportation relied on oil. This is how pretty much all the big corporations operate. We have the illusion of choice and a free market, but in reality corporations lobby the government and no form of control really works. Even when Dupont was sued due to their role in C8 production and dispersal, but nothing really came about. These corporations are both above the law, and influencing the law to stay that way. Consumers don't get any real choice, there are no corporations making market decisions that benefit consumers, and we are given no options. The market for transportation looks full of choice and consumer direction, but everything is based on the early cars that followed the oil boom. There are no actual environmentally friendly transportation options unless you use livestock and own enough land to feed them year round. I cannot go out as a consumer and purchase transportation that doe not rely on fossil fuels. Furthermore my existence as a consumer is almost entirely dictated by fossil fuels. They are the structure upon which our entire culture is based.

Sure. But I'm not saying that the existing actors should provide alternative choices. Musk is an example (I dislike the guy, and would not buy a Tesla, even if they drive fantastically, but he did come up with an alternative). There are other examples. With enough noise, it gets known that (some) people want something different, and some of those people will even have the skills to develop that different thing.

As such, making personal choices in the right direction is not only helping now, it is also a signalling as to what places in the market are ripe for development of new alternatives.

Yes, conventional actors (mfgs) are doing their best to make alternatives irrelevant. (Plastic industry is a big example of that.) But that does not mean we should give up.

 

[thecoalman]

I do agree with Ashful about single use packaging.

I work in a small retail store, we carry Trek and Stihl. When people ask me what I do I tell them I cut up boxes and throw them away because that is what it sometimes feels like. This is a small store and we could probably fill a pickup truck every other day with tightly packed carboard. The amount of waste before you even buy that product is incredible. The bikes are the worst because of their size and most of the space is empty unless it's packaging material, it can take more time to unpack and deal with packaging material than to put the bike together.

Not sure what the solution is because they need to protect the product.

I have a couple commercial jars in my fridge right now that could take standard canning lids, but the threads won't accept regular mason jar bands.

If they were all caning jars you would probably end up with just as many of them going into the trash down the road. Glass is a good material to reuse, not so much for recycling. You can easily end up expending more energy recycling it than simply making new ones.

 

[SpaceBus]

Case in point. Seattle and Tacoma were linked with an exceptional transportation system before WWI. Each city also had extensive streetcar networks that provided good transport around the city and between them, there was the Interurban. This worked well and affordably. Then GM and the oil companies conspired to replace the electric-driven trolley systems with buses. They started a well-organized and extensive smear campaign against the trolleys, calling them unsafe, slow, limited, and antiquated. Eventually, and probably with some payoffs, they convinced city leaders to replace the trolleys with buses. That was a big mistake because what they gave up was not only a good working system that could have been updated as technology improved, but they also gave up the extensive right of ways that the systems owned. The technology is kind of irrelevant, but the right of way is precious. It's very hard to recover and very expensive, as we now find out when we start putting back in these systems.

WWI is also when Standard Oil convinced the US government/military to adopt liquid fuels, although it's not like burning coal for steam was any better. The smear campaign against public transport wasn't isolated to the PNW, as I'm sur you know, it was carried out across the country. To own a car was to be American.

Pretty much all GHG can really be traced back to agriculture in some way. Many people in my climate change course agree that "The Anthropocene Epoch" should start when humans began altering ecosystems for agricultural purposes, thereby starting desertification and many of the current effects of climate change.

 

[Ashful]

The amount of waste before you even buy that product is incredible... Not sure what the solution is because they need to protect the product.

I was working in Germany back in the late 1990's, when they passed the controversial legislation demanding that all manufacturers take back and recycle a very large percentage (90 - 95%?) of all product and packaging they produce. It was controversial, because of the fear of exactly how much this would cost manufacturers operating in Germany.

I've been back briefly a few times since, but never to live and work, where I'd get any great information on how the program is working out for them. Obviously, their economy hasn't collapsed, if anything they're the shining star of the EU economy. I wonder if the program is continuing to work for them, or if it was eventually canceled or had the teeth modified out of it. Anyone here know?

In principle, I like the idea. But without uniform federal backing, no state could support such a program, lest it cost them their manufacturing business.

 

[SpaceBus]

I was working in Germany back in the late 1990's, when they passed the controversial legislation demanding that all manufacturers take back and recycle a very large percentage (90 - 95%?) of all product and packaging they produce. It was controversial, because of the fear of exactly how much this would cost manufacturers operating in Germany.

I've been back briefly a few times since, but never to live and work, where I'd get any great information on how the program is working out for them. Obviously, their economy hasn't collapsed, if anything they're the shining star of the EU economy. I wonder if the program is continuing to work for them, or if it was eventually canceled or had the teeth modified out of it. Anyone here know?

In principle, I like the idea. But without uniform federal backing, no state could support such a program, lest it cost them their manufacturing business.

When I was there in march 2012 cases of beer were sold in large plastic racks that required a deposit. You got the deposit back when you returned the rack and bottles, or it went towards the next case(s). I didn't eat out much and when I did it was up on the mountain snowboarding. The slopes/amenities had sorted recycling bins everywhere. I can't remember any other direct examples. I do remember plastic bottles still being available for soft drinks, water, etc.

 

[begreen]

I was working in Germany back in the late 1990's, when they passed the controversial legislation demanding that all manufacturers take back and recycle a very large percentage (90 - 95%?) of all product and packaging they produce. It was controversial, because of the fear of exactly how much this would cost manufacturers operating in Germany.

I've been back briefly a few times since, but never to live and work, where I'd get any great information on how the program is working out for them. Obviously, their economy hasn't collapsed, if anything they're the shining star of the EU economy. I wonder if the program is continuing to work for them, or if it was eventually canceled or had the teeth modified out of it. Anyone here know?

In principle, I like the idea. But without uniform federal backing, no state could support such a program, lest it cost them their manufacturing business.

Germany's progress is amazing. In the 1970s, Germany had around 50,000 landfills. Now, in a country of 83 million inhabitants, there are less than 300 and they are accessed by permit only. Most of their rules and standards now apply to the whole EU. They continue to refine and make progress. Norway recycles soda bottle plastic up to 50 times now. Their systems are setup to make recycled plastic more valuable than new plastic made from fossil fuel. They make it easy to recycle and reward recyclers. There are hundreds of examples where the EU and Germany are leagues ahead of the US in addressing waste. They have done this without destroying their economies. We could learn a lot from them if the political will was there.

 

[Ashful]

Not to make it a thread about Germany, but with regard to following such aggressive (by our standards) policies, the German's are what we'd call "rule followers". If you ask the typical German why you can't jay walk, or pass a car using the right lane (versus the left) on an expressway, they'll almost certainly say, "you just can't," or "it's not allowed."

It's in our history (blame Prohibition or unreasonable speed limits, if you want) to have stupid laws, and then for average citizens to sensibly ignore those laws, which breeds a culture of "rule breakers". Spend enough time making friends in Germany, and you'll see this is one of the things for which our American culture is known. Not all bad... Italy is far worse.

In any case, I think it's all related. Getting more sensible laws passed, specifically with regard to recycling, is maybe less than half the battle. Getting both citizens and corporations to follow those laws, in our present culture, could be the bigger hurdle.

 

[begreen]

Putting the onus on the citizens (and taxpayers) is not the solution. A big difference is that the EU has put the burden for recycling mostly on the producers. They have a strong incentive to make it easier for the consumer to recycle because the producers are held responsible for what they create. This is slowly starting to take root here with the first producer responsibility laws on the books in 4 states now.

 

[Poindexter]

Happen to have some free time this evening. Have reviewed for stuff we can do.

1. carbon neutral wood heat. One thing we all have in common .
2. Clothesline for drying clothes. We did this seasonally on the farm when I was a kid and I honestly miss smelling the apple orchard on my bed linens.
3. Electric vehicles. Two things I do know are bigger burners, like power plants, are more strictly regulated on emissions than homeowners. So if we got to burn say 50 tons of coal per hour, better to do it one big plant with commercial level emissions controls. The other side of the coin is electrical losses in transmission lines can be pretty significant. I am not equipped to know how much carbon we are emitting to cover transmission losses but I do think it should be discussed.
4. Adoption curve of new tech leading to economic viabiltiy.
5. Solar panels. I suspect they should end up being carbon negative, that is more more electricity out life cycle than pollution caused in manufacturing, something to look at this winter with my feet up.
6. Insulation and air sealing. Thank you @vinny11950 .
7. Voting. Adoption curve again. I have been registered either independent or libertarian for, gosh, 30 years at least. I think this is the same as adopting the technology curve again. If you keep voting for the same SOBs, that is what you will have to choose from next time around. On the one hand we all want our vote to count, but if people are voting for the greens or the whites instead of just choosing between the reds and the blues the white and green parties (I just made up white. If it is a thing like the official party of the KKK please accept my apologies in advance) - anyroad when the greens and the whites are getting some votes they are going to get bigger and more sophisticated.
8. reuse single use items. When I order takeout, I ask for no utensils and often get single use flatware anyway.
9. Packaging. This is huge. I asked the hospital I work for if I could get some cardboard boxes when one of the kids was moving out. I got 14 - more than one dozen- boxes 18x18x18 inches with 1.5" styrofoam insulation on 6 sides and stacks of Stay-Kold packs in every box. Along with all the other boxes, it was one day's receipts of incoming pharmaceuticals for one pretty small hospital. It boggles my mind to think of how many of those stay-cold packs show up on the dock at a big place like Duke or UCLA or the Cleveland Clinic every day. They go in the trash as soon as the drugs are in a refrigerator, at least up here.
10. Cloth diapers
11. plastics in general
12. (my paraphrase) shareholder greed. If you got a 401k, you too could be part of the problem...

I would be delighted to hear about 12 more things I could actually do, or think about doing, to 'do my bit.'

*My wife has three stainless steel straws to use in her water bottle collection so she isn't going though disposable straws daily anymore.
*We are trying to buy locally grown food. Part of the price of an avocado at Kroger is the diesel fuel required to ship it. Pine nuts from China, more oil for shipping. Mediterranean sea salt is usually good enough to pay shipping on. Whole nutmeg and allspice from the Caribbean I will pay shipping on. I do occasionally splurge on live Maine lobster, like every five years or so, but based on the price those suckers fly first class in the seats that get free unlimited champagne.
* choose things that last. The wife and I are both in ICE Toyotas that should last the rest of our lives. I am done buying flat pack 'furniture' that is mostly air bubbles surrounded by glue with enough sawdust in the mix for the mfr to print "real wood" on the box, with a picture of woodgrain printed on a plastic sheet as the outer laminated layer. I am done being stylish with clothes. I miss my flip phone. Shoes that will last 10 years are worth the purchase price to me. I have rather more than three pair of made in USA cowboy boots at least 15 years old, but I have never gotten more than a year out of any pair of Nikes I have ever owned.

So there is three. Y'all got nine more?

 

[EbS-P]

Happen to have some free time this evening. Have reviewed for stuff we can do.

1. carbon neutral wood heat. One thing we all have in common .
2. Clothesline for drying clothes. We did this seasonally on the farm when I was a kid and I honestly miss smelling the apple orchard on my bed linens.
3. Electric vehicles. Two things I do know are bigger burners, like power plants, are more strictly regulated on emissions than homeowners. So if we got to burn say 50 tons of coal per hour, better to do it one big plant with commercial level emissions controls. The other side of the coin is electrical losses in transmission lines can be pretty significant. I am not equipped to know how much carbon we are emitting to cover transmission losses but I do think it should be discussed.
4. Adoption curve of new tech leading to economic viabiltiy.
5. Solar panels. I suspect they should end up being carbon negative, that is more more electricity out life cycle than pollution caused in manufacturing, something to look at this winter with my feet up.
6. Insulation and air sealing. Thank you @vinny11950 .
7. Voting. Adoption curve again. I have been registered either independent or libertarian for, gosh, 30 years at least. I think this is the same as adopting the technology curve again. If you keep voting for the same SOBs, that is what you will have to choose from next time around. On the one hand we all want our vote to count, but if people are voting for the greens or the whites instead of just choosing between the reds and the blues the white and green parties (I just made up white. If it is a thing like the official party of the KKK please accept my apologies in advance) - anyroad when the greens and the whites are getting some votes they are going to get bigger and more sophisticated.
8. reuse single use items. When I order takeout, I ask for no utensils and often get single use flatware anyway.
9. Packaging. This is huge. I asked the hospital I work for if I could get some cardboard boxes when one of the kids was moving out. I got 14 - more than one dozen- boxes 18x18x18 inches with 1.5" styrofoam insulation on 6 sides and stacks of Stay-Kold packs in every box. Along with all the other boxes, it was one day's receipts of incoming pharmaceuticals for one pretty small hospital. It boggles my mind to think of how many of those stay-cold packs show up on the dock at a big place like Duke or UCLA or the Cleveland Clinic every day. They go in the trash as soon as the drugs are in a refrigerator, at least up here.
10. Cloth diapers
11. plastics in general
12. (my paraphrase) shareholder greed. If you got a 401k, you too could be part of the problem...

I would be delighted to hear about 12 more things I could actually do, or think about doing, to 'do my bit.'

*My wife has three stainless steel straws to use in her water bottle collection so she isn't going though disposable straws daily anymore.
*We are trying to buy locally grown food. Part of the price of an avocado at Kroger is the diesel fuel required to ship it. Pine nuts from China, more oil for shipping. Mediterranean sea salt is usually good enough to pay shipping on. Whole nutmeg and allspice from the Caribbean I will pay shipping on. I do occasionally splurge on live Maine lobster, like every five years or so, but based on the price those suckers fly first class in the seats that get free unlimited champagne.
* choose things that last. The wife and I are both in ICE Toyotas that should last the rest of our lives. I am done buying flat pack 'furniture' that is mostly air bubbles surrounded by glue with enough sawdust in the mix for the mfr to print "real wood" on the box, with a picture of woodgrain printed on a plastic sheet as the outer laminated layer. I am done being stylish with clothes. I miss my flip phone. Shoes that will last 10 years are worth the purchase price to me. I have rather more than three pair of made in USA cowboy boots at least 15 years old, but I have never gotten more than a year out of any pair of Nikes I have ever owned.

So there is three. Y'all got nine more?

Good points.
As for number 12 I’m sure there are some “green” mutual funds one could buy. I’m going to look into that for my Roth contribution this year.

 

[woodgeek]

@Poindexter, that is an excellent list. Some quick info I found...

#3: No need to guess.

Typically, utilities account for how much carbon they emit at the point of generation (by tracking their annual fuel usage) and the also track the amount of kWh they sell at the customer meters. By estimating the CO2 emissions for each of the fuels they have burned, and dividing this by the number of kWh sold, they arrive at a useful figure of merit, the gCO2/kWh. This (nominally) includes transmission losses, bc the kWh are measured at the customer meter as energy.

I poked around to look for your numbers and found this pdf: https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...missions_Intensity_Railbelt_2009-2018+(1).pdf

It details the (estimated) gCO2/kWh for the different utilities in AL. The (energy averaged) value is about 10% higher than the US average, about 526 gCO2/kWh in 2018, and trending downwards slowly (like the lower 48). Your utility may be higher or lower.

If you assumed a typical EV in your climate managed 3 mi/kWh (conservative), then driving 100 miles would use 33.3 kWh, and emit 33.3*526 = 17,515gCO2 or 17.5 kg CO2.

Burning 1 gallon of gasoline emits 8.9 kg of CO2. This is almost 20 lbs (!) much more mass than the gasoline in the first place, bc it is reacting with a large mass of air sucked up by the engine. This does NOT account for the energy required to extract or refine or transport the gasoline.

I found this article that estimates emissions from oil extraction: https://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/see/news/Pages/Crude-oil-carbon-footprint.aspx

It suggests oil extraction contributes 15 -40% of the total CO2 footprint of oil use. If we pick a low figure, like 20%, then we should multiply the above figure by 1/0.8 = 1.25. This get us to 8.9*1.25 = 11 kg CO2 per gallon of gasoline

So, that means, an ICE car would need to burn 17.5/11 = 1.6 gallons to go 100 miles in order to have the same emissions as an EV charged in AL, getting 3 mi/kWh. 100/1.6 = 62.5 mpg equivalent on a CO2 basis.

If you got a more typical 3.5 mi/kWh, the figure would become 3.5/3 = 73 mpg equivalent.

(FYI, these figures jibe with figures of 80+ mpg for EVs in the lower 48 computed by the National Academy of Science study in 2018. That study added in manufacturing emissions, and did a more thorough analysis of life-cycle emissions. Since AL is 10% higher gCO2/kWh, we could've just guessed 0.9*80 = 72 mpg equivalent)

Ofc, you have to decide if your use cases for an EV are acceptable, and if the car you would be replacing has a (true, seasonal) mpg worse than 60-70 mpg.

 

[woodgeek]

#5: Solar panel net energy/carbon offset:

This has been well studied. Decades ago the figures were a bit sketchy (so sometimes folks quote very old studies to make solar look bad). As you know, solar has gotten a lot cheaper. One way that was accomplished was by reducing the Si metal required per area (or Watt). This reduced the energy required to make a Watt of PV by a similar amount.

Current vintage PV in a US-average (I assume lower 48) solar resource with no shading generates as much energy as required to make the panel in about 18 mos. I would assume that the CO2 payback time would be roughly similar (since I assume the process heat and energy to refine the Si would be mostly nat gas and electric, not coal).

This figure depends on your solar resource. This link: https://www.turbinegenerator.org/solar/alaska/fairbanks/
suggest that your solar output for a fixed tilt PV array would be 1200 hours * output(kW) per year.

If accurate (your local PV installers would know/estimate it for you), this is about 2/3rd of the Southern California figure and 85-90% of the figure for the NorthEast US. Not bad at all. I guess its sunny in the summer.

So, given the lower resource, you could probably guess that a PV system would deliver more energy in 2-2.5 years on your roof than required to build it in the first place.

-------------------------------------------------

Combined with my prior post, this means that after 2.5 years, your PV electricity would be essentially zero CO2, and if used to charge an EV would zero out the fuel contribution to the vehicle emissions. Since manufacturing contributes about 30% of the total lifecycle emissions of an car, this would take the (life cycle adjusted) figure for emissions per mile down by 70%. So the emissions of the EV (even in the pessimistic 60 mpg case) to 60/0.3 = roughly 200 mpg equivalent.

IOW, a PV array charging an EV in your location would have a CO2/mile less than 20% of a 40 mpg car, in a full lifecyle analysis.

 

[Ashful]

Very interesting list, Poindexter. I'll leave the ever-brilliant woodgeek to comment on most of them, but I do have to take issue with re-usable diapers. We tried them on our first child for a hot minute, and quickly discovered why they've become so rare. I'd change that item to better recycling or construction of disposable diapers, if you want to have ANY hope of it ever gaining traction.

Got a kick out of woodgeek's benchmark 60-70 mpg. I'm thrilled when any of my present vehicles break 15 mpg. Here's to hoping full-size high-horsepower EV's are a bit more reasonably priced, when I'm due to replace the next in the current fleet. I'm not driving a compact turd, and I'm also not spending $100k+ (2020 dollars) to reduce my carbon output, the parameters are set.

 

[peakbagger]

Solar Hot Water - Check
PV- Check (no net purchases of power for 10 years, my first grid tied array is 20 years old)
Wood boiler (no fossil for five years) - Check
Minisplit - Check
House energy use on the low end of conventional construction - Check
Plug in Hybrid - Check
Hybrid charged from Solar - Check

Most of my recreation is local non motorized and if its 50 miles round trip Its "free"to get there using my plug in hybrid and surplus solar. The last time I did a plane trip for recreation is about 15 years ago.

It didnt happen overnight, I nibbled away at it over 30 years, did my own installs, used surplus PV panels for 2 of my arrays, took advantage of a utility program to do an energy retrofit on my house. I would like to go with low temp emitters to replace my slant fin but the payback is decades. Same for my wood boiler, its not very efficient but if I dont burn wood, I will just be leaving it in the woodlot from timberstand improvement.

I do have "toys" but they only eat fuel when I use them which is not that often.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Here’s one….

Drive a couple mph slower. It’ll save a good amount of gas. Or electricity of you drive electric

 

[Ashful]

Drive a couple mph slower. It’ll save a good amount of gas. Or electricity of you drive electric

True, but I think it'd be easier to convince people to turn their thermostat down a few degrees in winter, than to actually affect any long-term self-imposed change in one's driving habits. Put otherwise, folks who buy 500 hp cars are rarely spending that extra money with the intent of driving like your grandmother.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

When gas was $5/gal people were doing it.

 

[peakbagger]

I saw an article that the current drop in gas prices is predominantly being driven by folks driving less. It takes a couple of weeks of expensive fill ups to realize that maybe it makes sense not to drive as much. One my weekly trips to Mass, its noticable that the traffic has slowed down a bit. Still some speedster weaving in and out of traffic but far fewer. I try to run a bit slower but there is trade off, in heavy traffic the safest speed is what the other cars are driving. Trying to drive slower than the pack leads to cars and truck on the back bumper trying to push the slower car faster.

 

[begreen]

Happen to have some free time this evening. Have reviewed for stuff we can do.

1. carbon neutral wood heat. One thing we all have in common .
2. Clothesline for drying clothes. We did this seasonally on the farm when I was a kid and I honestly miss smelling the apple orchard on my bed linens.
3. Electric vehicles. Two things I do know are bigger burners, like power plants, are more strictly regulated on emissions than homeowners. So if we got to burn say 50 tons of coal per hour, better to do it one big plant with commercial level emissions controls. The other side of the coin is electrical losses in transmission lines can be pretty significant. I am not equipped to know how much carbon we are emitting to cover transmission losses but I do think it should be discussed.
4. Adoption curve of new tech leading to economic viabiltiy.
5. Solar panels. I suspect they should end up being carbon negative, that is more more electricity out life cycle than pollution caused in manufacturing, something to look at this winter with my feet up.
6. Insulation and air sealing. Thank you @vinny11950 .
7. Voting. Adoption curve again. I have been registered either independent or libertarian for, gosh, 30 years at least. I think this is the same as adopting the technology curve again. If you keep voting for the same SOBs, that is what you will have to choose from next time around. On the one hand we all want our vote to count, but if people are voting for the greens or the whites instead of just choosing between the reds and the blues the white and green parties (I just made up white. If it is a thing like the official party of the KKK please accept my apologies in advance) - anyroad when the greens and the whites are getting some votes they are going to get bigger and more sophisticated.
8. reuse single use items. When I order takeout, I ask for no utensils and often get single use flatware anyway.
9. Packaging. This is huge. I asked the hospital I work for if I could get some cardboard boxes when one of the kids was moving out. I got 14 - more than one dozen- boxes 18x18x18 inches with 1.5" styrofoam insulation on 6 sides and stacks of Stay-Kold packs in every box. Along with all the other boxes, it was one day's receipts of incoming pharmaceuticals for one pretty small hospital. It boggles my mind to think of how many of those stay-cold packs show up on the dock at a big place like Duke or UCLA or the Cleveland Clinic every day. They go in the trash as soon as the drugs are in a refrigerator, at least up here.
10. Cloth diapers
11. plastics in general
12. (my paraphrase) shareholder greed. If you got a 401k, you too could be part of the problem...

I would be delighted to hear about 12 more things I could actually do, or think about doing, to 'do my bit.'

*My wife has three stainless steel straws to use in her water bottle collection so she isn't going though disposable straws daily anymore.
*We are trying to buy locally grown food. Part of the price of an avocado at Kroger is the diesel fuel required to ship it. Pine nuts from China, more oil for shipping. Mediterranean sea salt is usually good enough to pay shipping on. Whole nutmeg and allspice from the Caribbean I will pay shipping on. I do occasionally splurge on live Maine lobster, like every five years or so, but based on the price those suckers fly first class in the seats that get free unlimited champagne.
* choose things that last. The wife and I are both in ICE Toyotas that should last the rest of our lives. I am done buying flat pack 'furniture' that is mostly air bubbles surrounded by glue with enough sawdust in the mix for the mfr to print "real wood" on the box, with a picture of woodgrain printed on a plastic sheet as the outer laminated layer. I am done being stylish with clothes. I miss my flip phone. Shoes that will last 10 years are worth the purchase price to me. I have rather more than three pair of made in USA cowboy boots at least 15 years old, but I have never gotten more than a year out of any pair of Nikes I have ever owned.

So there is three. Y'all got nine more?

Buy local. Pass on the French wine and get something from the US, preferably made in the state. Pass on buying strawberries out of season, etc.
Recycle responsibly. Find out where your recycling goes and choose the most responsible path. (Hint, choose another if connected to a landfill company)
Make clothing last and don't shop for the latest fashions. Buy natural fiber clothes, they are much more recyclable when worn out.
Drive less, walk and bike more. Use public transit when available
Travel less and shorter distances.
Live in a smaller space to reduce energy needs.
Give up the manor lawn
Live simpler.