Carbon Foot Print

Carbon Foot Print. Just so how many of you know the meaning of Carbon Foot Print? If truth be told, I only heard of the phrase whilst watching Kimora Lee, Life on the Fabulous Lane (I think *grin*). Yes, it's all about the fabulosity. Don't ask - it's a love and hate thing with me and Ms Lee.

Carbon Foot Print, or CFP is defined by wikipedia as a "measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide".[1] It is meant to be useful for individuals and organizations to conceptualize their personal (or organizational) impact in contributing to global warming. "

Gasps.

"An alternative definition of the carbon footprint is the total amount of carbon dioxide attributable to the actions of an individual (mainly through their energy use) over a period of one year. This definition underlies the personal carbon calculators. The term owes its origins to the idea that a footprint is what has been left behind as a result of the individual's activities.

Carbon footprints can either consider only direct emissions (typically from energy used in the home and in transport, including travel by cars, airplanes, rail and other public transport), or can also include indirect emissions (including CO2 emissions as a result of goods and services consumed). Bottom-up calculations sum attributable CO2 emissions from individual actions; top-down calculations take total emissions from a country (or other low-level entity) and divide these emissions among the residents (or other participants in that entity). "

Se-ree-ious sh*ts. Even Ms Lee was taken aback when she consulted a, erm, "green guru" in LA to check on her CFP. She scored, not suprisingly, for a fashion mogul slash diva slash entrepreneur extraordinaire slash billionaire slash DQ slash slash .... 27 tonnes. An average CFP is only 7.5 tonnes for individual according to the "green guru".

Astounded and feeling miserably, she took away the green guru's mac and manipulated her score. Cheater. Daft as she might be, some say, ditzy, she went on to shop for more "green" friendly products from bedlinens, to cosmetic products to food after her consultation. Thumbs up for that, I'd say, especially for someone who loves flying on a private jet (FYI, each time she fly on a private jet, it releases the same amount of carbon dioxide as a hummer - that is, one year of a hummer on the road) . And, if it isnt for her, I wouldn't have known what is CFP.

So, I started googling for CFP and found a site that actually calculate it. And, my score ...

Cheng, cheng, cheng.....

12.293 tonnes

Gasps.

FYI,

• The average footprint for people in United Kingdom is 9.8 tonnes.
• The average for the industrial nations is about 11 tonnes.
• The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 tonnes.
• To combat climate change the worldwide average needs to reduce to 2 tonnes.

I think it is time that all of us, not only Ms Kimora Lee, should start to do something for the mother earth because it is ultimately the place that we are living in and that we want the future generations to continue to enjoy what our generations had.


Footnote: I hope more govt officials are aware of this and not be so anal retentive (pardon my pun) or power hungry.