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Carbon Footprint (another try!) and Dr. Seuss
When I say to friends, “drive a diesel and cut your carbon footprint in half,” most look back with glazed eyes. When I say, “drive a diesel and cut your fuel costs in half,” they want to know more.
Most of us have become ‘over’ educated (thank you Mr. Gore) about the links between human-generated carbon emissions and a rapidly changing climate. The correlation, however, between money and carbon is just beginning to creep into our consciousness.
Yes, it is true, Carbon = Money. To be honest I love the fact that carbon is being debated as a tax or a cap or tariff or trade. Hey, I live in a province with a Carbon Tax! Terms such as these attach dollar signs to carbon in the minds of consumers.
Think back, if you can, to the first time we placed a value on empty drink containers. Overnight a simple useless thing, an empty drink container, something to be thrown ‘away’, instantly had value: same thing here. In the next one or two or three years, most global economies will have placed a value on the cost of carbon.
So am I getting tired of explaining ‘carbon footprint’? You betcha. I would much rather suggest to my friends that they give me the $1000 they will save by switching to a TDI for their next vehicle and I will open a ‘carbon savings account’ for them.
Carbon and a thousand bucks you say. Well, yes, if you are putting more than the average kilometers on a vehicle per year and that vehicle burns a fossil fuel. If you are spending a couple thousand a year on fuel and driving the average Canadian vehicle (9.5L/100km), a new model with half the consumption, i.e. more efficient, will return money to your pocket. Using the example of the Jetta TDI Clean Diesel, fuel costs can be cut in half.
Or I suppose you could ask all of those folks driving the cars of yesterday just how much money they want to throw into the air, or down the pipes of the oil companies (or in a tax). And then ask what they will do when the cost of fuel returns to the territory of $1.50 or $2.00 a litre. Don’t think for a minute that any of us will not see this in our life time, and I’m thinking more likely just a few short years away.
And for me, $2.00/L fuel would take all of the carbon questions away. I wouldn’t be asked what technology to drive as most folks would be running out to replace their guzzler with the most efficient model they could find. The conversations would shift to,’hey, I just bought one of those new fangled clean… do you know how much money I am going to save in fuel this year?’ And at the same time, I would be doing the mental math on the personal carbon footprint for this person. Call it a sickness; I see carbon while those around me see the dollar signs they are saving.
Does it matter? Not really. At the end of the day emissions are being cut dramatically and that is good for all of us. A few days ago, the Toronto Star did a piece on the pollution of city dwellers talking about per capita emissions. When we start to talk about the ‘per capita’ we are beginning to recognize our own personal responsibility and the relationship this has to our own personal carbon footprint.
Last point: I consider a carbon footprint as a measure of possible future cost reductions for a person or company. That is, the larger your current footprint the greater the potential for financial cuts and money back in your pocket (and this is true of the houses we live in and the vehicles we drive). It is also true of corporate facilities. Last year, following an energy audit on the Volkswagen Canada facility in Ajax, Ontario thousands of kilograms of carbon emissions were eliminated through smarter lighting choices. The reduction stories are not only about the cars!
So let’s focus on the big picture; cutting carbon from our day-to-day lives with a focus and mindfulness. Improving the efficiency of the worst offenders (with respect to carbon) is now a priority for everyone.
What did the Once-ler from the Dr. Seuss story “The Lorax” say?…
“Now that you’re here,
the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.
UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.”
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