Follow In My Footprints
When I was watching Meet The Press this morning, that wacky company BP had a commercial asking people if they knew how big their carbon footprint was. Nobody did. So they told the audience to find out on their website.
I usually ignore ads that force the audience to do work for any information, but for some reason I was feeling motivated today. I went through the carbon footprint calculator, and apparently, my carbon footprint is size 19. And you know what they say about people with large carbon footprints…
I actually found the exercise a bit frustrating. Most of it had to deal with the fact that I’m a grad student living in an old apartment building with old appliances, so there wasn’t much I could do to lower my score. But what was most frustrating is the fact that air travel contributes substantially to your carbon footprint (almost half of my score); yet, the site doesn’t mention anything that can be done to reduce your footprint in that area. On the upside, it was an interesting 10 minute diversion.