Online 'Carbon Footprint Calculator' helps Texans address global warming for Earth Day

Nature Conservancy calculator shows individuals how personal choices impact worldwide carbon emissions

San Antonio, Texas — April 17, 2008 — As more scientists recognize global climate change as a threat to the health of both people and wildlife, Earth Day provides an opportunity for concerned Texans to take action to help the planet. For those who want take an active role in safeguarding their environment, The Nature Conservancy of Texas offers an online "calculator" so they can make positive daily choices to help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions that contribute to global warming.


Poster - Download "Easy Things You Can Do to Help Our Climate"		Launch the Carbon Calculator

With the approach of Earth Day on April 22, Texans are encouraged to access the Internet-based tool and also refer friends and family members to it. Educators also can use the calculator to help young Texans understand the individual’s role in supporting a healthy planet. The Conservancy also provides a downloable poster of “Easy Things You Can Do to Help Our Climate.”

The Conservancy’s carbon calculator demonstrates how personal choices increase or decrease the user’s impact on global warming by measuring that person’s or family’s “carbon footprint” – the amount of greenhouse gas we produce based on daily habits such as transportation use, electric energy consumption and even dietary choices. The calculator puts these choices in context, allowing individuals to better understand the impact of their actions.

“In Texas, scientists are documenting the threats from global warming and climate change. While some patterns are within the range of historic variability, in recent years our state has faced severe drought, more intense storms and hurricanes, and the effects of rising sea level along the Gulf Coast,” said Jim Bergan, Ph.D., director of science for The Nature Conservancy of Texas. “This is a useful online tool to inform the public of the effects of global climate change. It explains how some of our actions contribute to rising temperatures and helps us make simple, everyday choices that, when multiplied by millions of Texans, can significantly benefit all of us.”

The Carbon Footprint Calculator also provides tips for reducing emissions and allows people to compare their overall impact to national and worldwide averages. It estimates emissions of all greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide. Because some of the gases that drive climate change can linger in the atmosphere for a century or more, today’s actions can make a big difference to future generations.

The calculator uses a highly visual and accessible format, including graphs and charts, and can be completed in a few minutes. It provides immediate visual feedback to users about the impact of their behaviors. The calculations have been reviewed and verified by Conservancy climate change scientists and are based on data from sources including the World Resources Institute and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“Once people use the carbon calculator and get a sense of what their impact is, there are many steps they can take to reduce their contributions to climate change,” Bergan said. “With the great distances we travel within the borders of Texas, we can choose to teleconference instead of driving or flying to business meetings, reducing carbon emissions while saving on the high cost of fuel. Developing this mindset is not a partisan issue, it’s about optimizing household economies and bettering our environment.

“We can install programmable thermostats in our homes and offices for more efficient cooling in the hot summer months, and plant native Texas trees to provide shade. We can also take better advantage of our delicious and abundant Texas-grown produce, meats, fish, shrimp and other foods, which would result in fewer emissions when compared to food transported from out of state,” Bergan added.

A list of “Easy Things You Can Do to Help Our Climate” is below.

The Nature Conservancy has worked in Texas for more than 40 years, conserving more than 750,000 acres of important natural ecosystems throughout the Lone Star State.

In addition to public awareness efforts such as the Carbon Footprint Calculator, the Conservancy works to reduce sources of global warming by promoting policies to reduce emissions from fossil fuels and by stemming deforestation. Conservancy scientists in Texas are working in the Hill Country, on the Gulf Coast, in the Trans Pecos of West Texas, in the Big Thicket, in the Rio Grande Valley and other parts of the state to build networks of conservation areas that help plants and animals move into new locations as the old ones become uninhabitable. These projects also improve the ability of ecosystems to cope with warmer temperatures, altered precipitation, rising sea levels and other changes.

Learn more about the Conservancy’s climate change efforts at nature.org/climatechange.

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Easy Things You Can Do To Help Our Climate
(To find out the size of your household’s “carbon footprint” visit The Nature Conservancy of Texas’ calculator at nature.org/texas.)

• TIP: Travel light. Whenever possible, walk or bike instead of driving a car. Cars and trucks run on fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walking or biking saves one pound of carbon for every mile you travel. If you must drive to work or run errands, form carpools with your co-workers and neighbors, and plan trips for gasoline efficiency.

• TIP: Inflate your tires. Your car will get better gas mileage when the tires are fully inflated, so it will burn less gas and emit less carbon. Check your automobile monthly to ensure that the tires are fully inflated. Follow this tip and save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive.

• TIP: Teleconference instead of flying. For office meetings, if you can telephone or videoconference, you will save time, money and carbon emissions. Airplanes pump carbon emissions high into the atmosphere, producing 12 percent of transportation sector emissions. Avoid driving or flying all the way across Texas if you can accomplish your meeting by phone or videoconference.

• TIP: Plant Texas native trees. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and use it as their energy source, producing oxygen for us to breathe. A tree in the temperate zone – found between the tropics and the polar circles – can remove and store 700 to 7,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime. A tree that shades a house can reduce the energy required to run the air-conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

• TIP: Turn down the air-conditioning. Heating and air-conditioning draw more than half of the energy that a home uses in the United States. Turn down the heat or air-conditioning when you leave the house or go to bed. You can install a programmable thermostat that can save both money and carbon.

• TIP: Act globally, eat Texas-style. At the grocery store, the food you buy may travel in a plane or ship from the other side of the world, burning fossil fuels the entire trip. Whenever possible, consider shopping at local farmers’ markets and stores that carry locally grown foods – or look for these in the supermarket. You will find fresh and healthy Texas-grown produce and meats, and help save our climate.

• TIP: A bright idea. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. These energy-efficient bulbs help fight climate change because they reduce the amount of fossil fuels that utilities burn. You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent, over the life of the bulb.

• TIP: Recycle and use recycled products. Products made from recycled paper, glass, metal and plastic reduce carbon emissions because they use less energy to manufacture than products made from completely new materials. For instance, you’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle. Recycling paper also saves trees and lets them continue to reduce climate change naturally as they remain in the forest, where they remove carbon from the atmosphere. Many Texas cities now provide curbside recycling for households.

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The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 18 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 117 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at nature.org. In the Lone Star State, The Nature Conservancy of Texas owns more than 30 nature preserves and conservation projects and assists private landowners to conserve their land through more than 100 voluntary land-preservation agreements. The Nature Conservancy of Texas protects some 250,000 acres of wild lands and, with partners, has conserved 750,000 acres for wildlife habitat across the state. Visit The Nature Conservancy of Texas on the Web at nature.org/texas.