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Re: E-M:/ Are We Ready to Track Carbon Footprints?

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Enviro-Mich message from Larry Nooden <ldnum@umich.edu>
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Keeping this simple. Larger scale (system?) activities have carbon footprints just as individual have activities have them. They help people understand the costs-benefits to make better choices and to pressure reluctant governments and businesses.

The footprint of a bottle of wine makes little difference in the great picture (but it is fun to think about and the idea does promote more thought); however, individual activities, e.g., transportation and home energy use, can be very significant.

--On Tuesday, March 25, 2008 11:23 AM -0600 Flynn Tim <timf@mac.com> wrote:

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Enviro-Mich message from Flynn Tim <timf@mac.com>
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Individual conservation will never solve the problem this is a  societial
problem and only solvable by common action.

Individual action only helps at the margin. To get to 80% reduction by
2050 we need governments globally to act.  The whole system must  change.
Changes within the system can never be enough.

How do you apply foot prints to systemic change?

TJF

On Mar 25, 2008, at 9:33 AM, Larry Nooden <ldnum@umich.edu> wrote:

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Enviro-Mich message from Larry Nooden <ldnum@umich.edu>
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Carbon footprinting of various products and activities is starting
to get the public discussion that it deserves.

NYT- People are not good at making immediate sacrifices for an
abstract benefit in the future, especially when they have a
hard time understanding the problem.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/science/25tier.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&or
ef=slogin
>

Carbon footprinting is interesting; for example, which has a lesser
carbon footprint, a bottle of wine shipped from France or trucked in
from California?


Answer =


the French wine carries less for most of the eastern US, but
Michigan falls west of the Napa-Bourdeaux divide (Science 319:139,
2008).  I guess the wine-bearing ships do not come directly to
Detroit.

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ENVIRO-MICH:  Internet List and Forum for Michigan Environmental
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==============================================================
ENVIRO-MICH:  Internet List and Forum for Michigan Environmental
and Conservation Issues and Michigan-based Citizen Action.   Archives at
http://www.great-lakes.net/lists/enviro-mich/

Postings to:  enviro-mich@great-lakes.net      For info, send email to
majordomo@great-lakes.net  with a one-line message body of  "info enviro-mich"
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