Posted on 08/06/2008 9:30:37 AM PDT by Incorrigible
By SCOTT LEARN
To cut energy use, save money and, while you're at it, live a greener life, you can turn down the air conditioning, back off the accelerator, hop on a bike.
But when it comes to your personal energy tally, there's another big but not as commonly considered source: the stuff you buy. Every product, from televisions to teapots, takes energy to get to the shopping bag — energy to mine raw materials, make the product and ship it.
Yet that use goes unreported in the tracking of greenhouse gases and energy. Though some states may be trying to stabilize warming emissions, worldwide emissions driven by the consumption of U.S. residents and businesses actually are going up.
"From the perspective of John Q. Public, who's wondering, 'What can I do to reduce emissions?' saying certain activities count and others don't doesn't pass the laugh test," said David Allaway, the point man for waste and consumption issues at Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality. "And we need credibility with the public on this issue."
Downplaying consumption-related emissions in the U.S. greenhouse gas count is understandable, Allaway says. The numbers are tough to pin down. No state is formally tracking it. Neither is the nation.
At the same time, a pending U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study estimates half of U.S. global warming emissions are tied to material and food consumption.
Researchers say the national greenhouse gas count could jump by as much as 30 percent if the energy used to make rising U.S. imports — typically from countries such as China, where less efficient industries use dirtier energy sources — was taken into account.
Allaway is trying to make Oregon the first state to track emissions from consumption, in part by commissioning a new study to pin down the numbers.
The state's consumption is expected to fall in the current economic downturn, given rising commodity prices and a weak housing market. That direct connection to the economy is part of what makes targeting consumption so touchy.
But the state expects nearly 800,000 more people in Oregon by 2020 and says big increases are likely to continue long term without a change in consumer behavior.
From 1995 to 2006, Oregon's waste generation — the tail end of consumption — increased nearly two-thirds, driven partly by population growth and housing construction. Per-person waste generation jumped a third, despite a state goal to stop the growth by 2005 and shift from a "throw-away" to a conservation society.
In Oregon's global warming plan, stopping the growth in waste — and the related consumption — generates the third-highest greenhouse gas savings going forward, behind only boosting auto mileage and increasing renewable energy.
Consumers think about the electricity a product uses after they buy it. But that doesn't account for the energy used making the thing.
Depending on the product, that can be a big deal. One example: A 2005 study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concluded that 58 percent of a personal computer's emissions occur before a customer buys it.
Allaway is leading his state's effort to encourage less waste production. The program encourages consumers to buy used instead of new, durable instead of cheap. It nudges businesses to use fewer materials, reduce packaging and make products easier to repair, reuse and recycle.
Some help is coming from the popular culture. The hit movie "Wall-E" opens with a robot alone (except for a cockroach) on an Earth devastated by rampant consumption.
The subject also is getting more scrutiny in Western Europe, where consumption is about a third less than U.S. levels.
In the United Kingdom, a government-financed study recently concluded that U.K. emissions, reported to have dropped by 5 percent from 1992 to 2004, actually rose when the greenhouse gases from imports were taken into account. U.K. supermarket chain Tesco recently stuck "carbon labels," a carbon price tag of sorts, on 20 products.
Stateside, the Maryland-based Center for the New American Dream started its "carbon-conscious consumer" campaign last summer, emphasizing such things as breaking "the bottled water habit." In September, Wal-Mart began asking suppliers to measure their carbon footprint and find ways to reduce it.
Environmental groups are pushing to make "sustainable consumption" as trendy as eating local and swapping canvas bags for plastic. The Sierra Club points to the consumption-fueled damage done, including decreases in forest cover and fisheries, and frets about the consequences if developing countries strive for U.S. standards of living.
So far, there's not a lot of comparative detail on the carbon footprint of individual products, though there are plenty of green claims being made in advertising.
In general, aluminum, concrete and electronics have relatively big carbon profiles, Allaway says. And a widely publicized 2006 United Nations study attributed 18 percent of global warming emissions to the raising of cattle, pigs and other livestock, counting the impacts of deforestation to expand pasture.
Last year, Carnegie Mellon University researchers estimated that including the "embodied emissions" of imports in the 2004 U.S. greenhouse gas inventory would have boosted emissions by 13 percent to 30 percent.
If analysts can nail the numbers, Allaway says, putting consumption in the national inventory would help focus responsibility on consumers, not just manufacturers.
Measuring emissions only for products made locally "is kind of flaky," Allaway said. "It's called 'global' warming, right?"
(Scott Learn is a staff writer for The Oregonian of Portland, Ore. He can be contacted at scottlearn(at)news.oregonian.com.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
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I'm freezing here in Massachusetts, but Mr. Trisham refuses to turn on the heat! :)
I'm wearing a flannel shirt over my jammies, and fleece socks. Thank goodness for hot coffee.
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