Micro, Macro and Me

Two years has passed since my last annual update... This year, a lot of my focus has been escalation of the unjustifiable war against Ukraine.  Even if Sweden is not directly involved in the battles of the war, the aggressor has made explicit demands that Sweden (along with Finland, Moldova, Ukraine and several NATO and EU members) shall be subjugated to the aggressor. We are all affected by this war and we must do everything needed to help Ukraine stop the aggressions and make Europe a continent under the rule of law again.  My reaction to the war has focused on four areas: Energy efficiency - This year, I'm not the only one to be obsessed with energy efficiency. I have been reducing my electricity consumption to offload the power grid and to prevent blackouts. More about that below. Supporting refugees - I have re-joined a volunteer group in my area, that is giving support to refugees from Ukraine and other countries. I've also been a team leader in that group. Financial sup...

Promise One year ago, I promised to reduce my personal consumption based CO2e emissions from 4.7 tonnes to 3.8 tonnes. Result In 2019, my personal consumption based CO2e emissions was 2.9 tonnes - a reduction of 1.8 tonnes. Together with the public emissions of 3.8 tonnes, that gives a total of 6.6 tonnes of CO2e. I've honored my NYE resolution but my emission levels are far from sustainable. The average in Sweden is some 6 tonnes of personal consumption based CO2e emissions, so I'm a bit below the average but still higher than the one tonne target from IPCC. My emission levels are not OK! However, I've reached the conclusion that this issue is larger than the sum of individuals and their actions. While some individuals stop flying, others keep flying and governments build new airports and expand existing ones. Individuals buy electric bikes, while governments builds pipelines and can't decide whether to expand oil refineries or not. Get me right - the con...

I've been busy with our next home - papers are signed and relocation will happen next spring. The impact for this blog will be a slight shift of focus on this blog. I'll still have some discussions about resources on a macro and micro scale but I'll also investigate how to approach a sustainable life in suburbia. I won't move far though. We'll move to a community between Lund and Malmö, 8 km from our current home. During the summer, I've helped out with reviewing some sources for a publication by Extinction Rebellion that is distributed to political leaders around Sweden. I have reached the conclusion that reducing my own emissions won't be enough to stop the ongoing global heating. I need to speak louder and I'm grateful for the opportunity to help XR with the publication. I'll elaborate more on my thoughts in the next blog post. Side note:  My current prediction is 2.3 tonnes of CO2e of personal consumption based emissions for 2019. To...

Summary : The idea behind offsetting carbon emissions is to pay someone else to reduce his/her emissions and to relate that reduction to ones own emissions. It can be a good thing - or a bad thing.  If the purpose is to keep polluting with a green-washed conscience, it is a bad thing.  If the purpose is to reduce your own pollution and help others to reduce theirs, it is a good thing. There are some ways to offset carbon as an individual. Some are credible and others seems to be scams and green-washing.  In this blog post, I'm trying to learn more about offsetting, when to use it and how to do it. Ester hoped that her younger cousin Grace would fall a sleep early this evening - in vain. Three days before the last year project in Chemistry was due and a "B" in STEM wasn't an option. Now, Grace was occupied with a jigsaw puzzle and Ester was able to focus on her project. The smell of kerosene from the lamp was a bit ironic - Ester's project was focusing...

Here is an update on my New Years resolution. Using a spreadsheet that is inspired on Klimatkontot , I note my consumption of housing, travels, food and commodities on a weekly basis. I calculate relevant sums or averages of that consumption and I use that when updating Klimatkontot. For the February report, two months are facts and the rest is predictions. The blue rows are the past weeks and the green row is the current week.  The future weeks are estimated to the average of the blue weeks. For food, I've added the annual CO2e emissions per weekly portion. Red meat such as lamb and beef is very CO2e-intense. Replacing with other meat (or preferably vegetarian food) will reduce the emissions a lot.  I fill in the consumption weekly for three reasons: I need to know my actual consumption, without any happy numbers or green-washing. I need to understand what actions are efficient in order to reduce my global warming footprint. I need an immediate feedback of my b...

A couple of months ago, I discussed how much land each of us would have, if the global land mass was distributed evenly. Now, I'll look at some important natural resources. Return of Investment When discussing resources and reserves, it is very important to distinguish them. I'll illustrate with an apple tree that provide me with apples to eat. The first apples that I pick are the big, juicy ones between one and two meters above the ground. Why those apples and not smaller, half rotten apples that lie on the ground or big apples five meters above the ground? The answer is Return of Investment . The effort (investment) of picking easily accessible, big and juicy apples is low and the returns are high. When all the low-hanging fruit is taken, I'll pick the slightly smaller and non-perfect apples. The returns are diminishing and thus the Return of Investment falls. Perhaps, I decide to go for the high-altitude apples, taking a risk of falling, buying a ladder or asking ...

For 2019, my New Year's resolution will be to monitor my personal CO2e emissions and meet the 2030 target from IPCC . To reach the 1.5 degree target, the global emissions must be 45% lower, compared with 2010. By 2050, the emissions must be net-zero. Average Footprint The numbers for the average footprint are a bit confusing and some clarification is needed. A person (in Sweden for this example) emitted almost 11 tonnes of CO2e  in 2010. Almost 4,5 tonnes are produced in  Sweden and more than six tonnes abroad. The abroad emissions include imports, such as Brazilian beef, American/Chinese Iphones and holiday travels abroad. Most of the emissions from a person is from his/her personal consumption (7 tonnes 2010), but a fraction is from hospitals, police, schools, care of children and elderly (4 tonnes). I'll use the Swedish web site klimatkontot to calculate my personal emissions. Step 1: Measure Current Footprint. The first step is to understand how much I emitt...