Last June, David Gershon saw Al Gore’s global warming documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ The time was ripe, he realized, to finish an old project. In 2000, Mr. Gershon created a step-by-step program, Ã la Weight Watchers, designed to reduce a person’s carbon footprint. The idea received positive reviews after a pilot program was run in Portland, Ore., but it eventually fell by the wayside for lack of interest. ‘The world wasn’t ready,’ says Gershon, who heads the Empowerment Institute in Woodstock, N.Y., a consulting organization that specializes in changing group behavior. But since then, Americans witnessed the catastrophic fury of hurricane Katrina, which, if nothing else, showed them what a major city looks like underwater. A substantial body of evidence supporting the idea of human-induced global warming accumulated. And, of course, Mr. Gore made his movie. Attitudes toward global warming had shifted considerably. (Indeed, a recent poll by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that nearly half of Americans cited global warming as the No. 1 environmental concern; in 2003, only one-fifth considered it that critical.) Gershon put his nose to the grindstone, and a slim workbook titled ‘Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to […]
Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007
A Grass-roots Push for a ”Low Carbon Diet’
Author: MOISES VELASQUEZ-MANOFF
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
Publication Date: Wednesday, 01/03/07
Link: A Grass-roots Push for a ”Low Carbon Diet’
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
Publication Date: Wednesday, 01/03/07
Link: A Grass-roots Push for a ”Low Carbon Diet’
Stephan: Thanks to Rick Ingrasci, MD.
A few footprint shrinkers you can easily do:
U.S. homes account for 8 percent of the world's emissions, with the average household contributing 55,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, according to author David Gershon. His 'Low Carbon Diet' workbook makes dozens of suggestions for reducing one's carbon footprint. Here are a few of his book's recommendations and how much carbon he says participants can subtract from their footprints by following through:
> Washers and dryers generate five pounds of carbon dioxide per cycle. In warm or hot water loads, 90 percent of the required energy goes to heat the water. Using cold water saves two pounds per load. Front-loading washing machines cut the amount of water used in half. Drying clothes on a clothesline further diminishes emissions. All in all, using cold water once per week shrinks your carbon footprint by 275 pounds each year; not using the dryer once a week gets you another 200. Replacing an old machine with an Energy Star front-loading washer saves 500 pounds a year.
> A 10-minute shower generates up to four pounds of CO2. A 5-minute shower cuts that in half and a low-flow showerhead drops it further. In a household, each person who reduces their shower to five minutes cuts emissions by 175 pounds per year. A low-flow showerhead saves you another 250.
> Request to be removed from junk mail lists, which needlessly contribute to waste. If you can reduce your weekly waste by 60 gallons, credit yourself with 2,650 pounds yearly.
I plan to follow these steps, and hope you will consider doing the same.
