Darmok, thanks for pointing me to the Nobel Prize website. There, I found a real gem. A transcript of the telephone interview of Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), following the announcement of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, 12 October 2007. The interviewer was Adam Smith, Editor-in-Chief of Nobelprize.org. Here is the part that caught my attention:
(AS) – If individuals were to ask you what they should do to help . . .
(RP) – Yes, yes. (I can so well see it, the Indian head shake . . . Prad being from India, this is an ongoing joke between us, Yes, yes, I am telling you . . .)
(AS) – . . . What would your message be to them?
(RP) – Well I would say two things. Firstly I think we should ponder and consider, ponder over and consider, the carbon footprint that each of our actions is producing. And I think if we create a consciousness that this world has to move towards a low carbon future, then I think it would certainly set us in a somewhat different direction from what we’ve been following. And secondly I think there is need for major behavioural changes, and changes in lifestyles, and I think if the public puts adequate pressure on governments then governments will frame policies, including putting a price on carbon, that will provide the right signals to the market as well for developing new technologies and being able to disseminate them on a large scale.
So, you mean I am not crazy. We need to figure out a better, more user friendly system of measuring the impact of each one of our daily actions. Carbon calculators don’t work because they are too rough in the way they operate. The measurements need to get down to the minute level of each ones of our actions, so that we become conscious on a much more refined level. This is an idea that has been dancing in my head for some time now, and Rajendra Pachauri’s words are just what I needed to get going with this project. I want to itemize all the actions that make my days, and start calculating the carbon impact for each one. I will spend the next few days getting set up, and, just to make it clean, I will start next Monday. I will call it the Carbon Conscious Project. I will make it the focus of this blog for the next weeks to come, and see where that takes me.
La Marguerite 
which carbon calculators are you using and what is it that’s missing from them ?
I love the prad head nodding comment – i think the two of you are so cute
by the way I wonder if this technigue might help your neck
http://www.nsthealth.com
Best of Mother Earth aka Karen Hanrahan
http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com
PS did you see the green and gorgeous bags?? I have mixed feelings about it – the video is so funny – the interviewer could have cared less about the bag – she wanted ” designer ” scoop
hey is ecochic
and eco-chick 2 different things
I think i might have mixed them up
Thanks Karen, for taking such good care of my neck . . . I will look into it.
Back to carbon calculators, the current tools look at the overall carbon footprint for, lets say a family over the course of a year. What I am suggesting is a finer level of info, that would let users know the carbon impact for each of their daily actions. Example, if I use an electric toothbrush, and I brush my teeth with it twice a day, what is the carbon impact? If I am on the computer eight hours a day, what is the carbon impact? If I drive to the grocery store what is the carbon impact? If I buy a dress made in China, from Target, what is the carbon impact, dress and trip to the store included? I believe we do not think globally, and the best way to get people to take action, is to make the problem relevant to their everyday life. And to get down to a very concrete level. What do you think?
La Marguerite, I’m glad you liked it!
That’s how I try to live my life—always being aware of the effects of my actions. Not in an obsessed way, but as a sort of theme, similar to trying to be healthy. It’s great when they align! “Should I take the elevator? No—I’ll take the stairs; that way I get exercise and save power.” heh
Thanks Darmok, you ‘ve got it, and that’s the best when you operate out of the right set of values. Then, lists become superfluous. Almost . . .
I think the lists can certainly help. But one needs to have a framework to integrate them into. And calculating the impacts as you mention could certainly be useful to see just how important it would be to forgo some activity.
I agree, lists can only be integrated as tools for greener living within greater context of paradigm shift to different values, from ‘Buy, Consume, Dispose’, to, ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’. There is a whole awakening that needs to take place, and the path to it is not completely clear yet. Some of us are further along than others. In the Carbon Conscious Project I want to also include that dimension.