Montana Climate Change
Carbon Footprint Calculator
Your Carbon Footprint
A standard methodology in climate change studies is to first take inventory. A number of websites offer ways to measure your “carbon footprint” – your family’s energy use and contribution to greenhouse gases. Keep in mind that we all must pay a certain amount for every unit of energy used, whether for vehicle fuel, electricity, natural gas for home heating and hot water, or more indirectly for air travel or even food purchases.
Visit one or several of the following sites and get a rough determination of your household contribution to greenhouse gases. Some calculators may ask specific information about utility consumption patterns. You can ask your parents about monthly utility costs for electricity, natural gas, or other fuels you might use.
A few calculators ask pertinent questions about food consumption choices and waste recycling. How do food purchases contribute to the carbon footprint? The distance that food travels from where it is grown or raised to the consumer’s table is known as “the food mile.” In general, the greater the number of food miles, the higher the transportation energy expended. But the type of transportation is also a factor. Cargo ships are considered a more energy efficient form of food transportation than, say, jet airplanes. Consequently, the carbon emissions associated with certain foods can be quite high. Beef consumption is measured on some calculators because of the energy costs associated with grain fattening.
The Nature Conservancy offers an easy-to-use carbon footprint calculator. Food consumption patterns are included. Results are compared against national and world averages for your family size.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers a carbon calculator at its website. The calculator is detailed for home energy use, automobile use, and recycling.
The World Resources Institute also offers a carbon calculator. Once again, it offers no fields for diet. You may want to have some utility bills in front of you as you use the calculator.
Wired is both an online and hard-copy published magazine specializing in general technological breakthroughs. Recently, it debuted a public television program by the same name. It has a carbon footprint calculator available.
Redefining Progress offers this easy-to-use calculator, Ecological Footprint Quiz (2002).
Experiment with running the same numbers through different calculators to see how the results might vary. Most calculators will have standard entries when you enter Montana as your home state. These hidden figures are arrived at by generalizing statewide weather, and perhaps other factors.
In Montana, our per capita average energy use is about twice that of many other states. This is because of our large agricultural sector is factored in and also because of the state’s energy supply industry: coal, natural gas, and oil. There is little evidence that Montanans actually use a great deal more energy per person than residents of most other states. But try out the calculators to see how you compare.
