{"id":782,"date":"2019-09-16T19:39:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T05:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svbellamarina.com\/?p=782"},"modified":"2019-09-16T19:48:22","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T05:48:22","slug":"its-not-easy-being-green-a-carbon-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svbellamarina.com\/2019\/09\/16\/its-not-easy-being-green-a-carbon-dilemma\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Not Easy Being Green: A Carbon Dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"
In the last couple of weeks I’ve been thinking more and more about our personal Carbon footprint. From the not-yet-tested assumption that our solar and wind powered cruising lifestyle should be low-footprint, to several sundowner conversations about diet choices, cows, and lithium battery production, to several articles about global warming, Amazon fires, food production, and Greta Thunberg<\/span>‘s arrival in New York on a sailboat, the topic keeps following me around. So what’s a curious cruiser to do but start reading some research papers and put together some spreadsheets? Once a PM, always a PM, or so they say… right?<\/p>\n The carbon footprint calculators on the internets seem to vary wildly in terms of accuracy and granularity of input and output. They are a good place to start, but I found myself wanting more accurate data that wasn’t cookie-cut to the big-house-with-a-white-picket-fence model. After all, we live in French Polynesia in a floating tiny home and drive around an electric dingy as opposed to a car. If you are curious about your footprint and looking for a place to start, this one<\/a> and this one<\/a> don’t suck, but I ended up pretty much tailoring and modifying most numbers based on more granular inputs and more recent research which is readily available online.<\/p>\n Highlights<\/strong>: I was shocked to learn how much CO2 we contributed last year based on our international travel due to long flights half way around the world, but not surprised to learn that our animal-protein based diet has the same carbon footprint as the US average vegan diet due to our attention on how we source the meats and preference for non-processed foods. And I was chagrined to realize that even with our solar green living, we still averaged twice as much as the global average.<\/p>\n But let me get into the details. Below is a table and diagram detailing the last 12 months in CO2 impact:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n