Carbon-Free Lifestyle
If you believe that global warming is the most important environmental threat today, then what can you do about it? As I was hauling and splitting firewood this past weekend, it occurred to me that it might be possible to achieve a nearly carbon-free lifestyle.
By "carbon-free lifestyle," I mean releasing no fossil carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere as a direct result of daily activities. I don't mean zero-use of petroleum-based products, since lots of manufactured goods (like most plastics) are oil-based, but don't directly result in carbon dioxide emissions through their use.
Nor do I mean zero carbon dioxide emissions, since biofuels don't result in any net CO2 being added to the atmosphere even though burning them releases carbon dioxide.
In the United States (and similar developed countries) each of us directly causes the release of tons of fossil CO2 into the atmosphere each year. But these emissions are for three main uses, all of which have zero- or nearly-zero alternatives: heat, electricity, and transportation.
Heat: For those of us in northern climes, heat is a big deal, but even in other places you need heat for cooking, hot water, and other domestic uses. In my home, 95% of the total domestic heating is done with natural gas. But firewood is a traditional and effective--and now much cleaner and efficient than it used to be--option. In some rural areas people still heat their homes primarily with wood. With some engineering, a modern home could use a high efficiency wood-fired boiler for both heat and hot water.
Zero-carbon sources of electricity can also be used for heat, as can solar (both active and passive). Solar thermal systems are now reasonably cost-effective, paying for themselves in a decade or so, and wood heat is now cheaper than natural gas.
By the way, wood-pellet systems are not zero-carbon (wood pellet stoves use pellets of waste wood instead of logs, and are more convenient than log burners). The wood pellets are held together with wax which is derived from--you guessed it--petroleum.
Electricity: Electricity comes from many sources, some of which (like wind, hydro, and nuclear) are already zero-carbon, and others (like coal and gas) emit lots of CO2. If you live in Minnesota, you can already pay extra to buy power only from renewable sources (which in this state means mainly wind), and that makes your electricity use zero-carbon with no fuss.
If that's not an option, you're pretty much left with generating your own power from solar or wind sources. Unfortunately, that gets pretty expensive (and may not be possible in some places), and probably won't generate enough power to run central air during the summer down south. So if you want to be zero-carbon in your electricity use, you might have to move to a progressive Northern state.
Transportation: Transportation is easy, though it will take some research: buy a diesel-powered vehicle, and run it from 100% biodiesel. There are several decent diesel-powered cars on the market today, and if a VW Beetle isn't your speed, then maybe a heavy duty pickup truck will be. Biodiesel is still hard to find at the pump, but it is becoming more and more common. Odds are there's a source within 50 miles of where you live.
Walking and riding a bike are also good options, if you live close to where you need to go.
So there you have it: you may be able, with a little planning and effort, to almost completely eliminate your personal fossil CO2 emissions. You might even save some money in the process, since firewood is cheaper than natural gas, and diesel cars get great mileage.
Granted, this is not perfect. When you fly, the airline is still burning jet fuel from an oil well. When you go to work or send your kids to school, they're still using natural gas to heat the building. And of course the company that manufactures your high efficiency wood stove probably used fossil fuels in its manufacturing process.
But those organizations have the same choices you do, and they can choose to cut back their CO2 emissions in much the same way.