Micro, Macro and Me

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...

Looking at the world, there are huge areas of valuable land that can provide the human population with food and goods. But we are so many to share the resources (currently 7.5 billion persons). How much land is there per person, if the world would be divided evenly? If you would share a small island with nine other persons, it would be fairly easy to understand how big your share would be. 10% of a 20-hectare island is 2 hectares, 10% of 250 trees is 25 trees, and so on. We can both calculate our share and feel the size of it. For bigger islands and populations, however, it is much harder to estimate our share of the world an the resources. - How many hectares of rain forest would I have if it was to be distributed in a ”fair” manner? How much oil? Phosphor? Plains? Fresh water? Lithium for my next cell phone? Our world has a surfare area of 500 million square kilometers, of which some 150 millions sq km is land. Each of us would have slightly less than two hectares o...

Vi vet vad som händer. Vi vet vad som vi behöver göra. Men vi fortsätter att göra det vi gjort innan. Vi köper den där biffen, bokar den där resan, tar den där bilen till gymmet och köper den där paddan. Vissa av oss får dåligt samvete men vi kan liksom inte låta bli. På ett sätt är vårt beteende rationellt. Vi lever i en tid med ett unikt materiellt välstånd. För några månadslöner kan vanliga människor nå andra sidan jorden, snabbt och säkert. Vem vill vara en "sucker" som låter bli när grannen ändå gör det. Tänk Fångarnas Dilemma och Allmänningens Tragedi. Ska vi begränsa skadorna av den globala uppvärmningen räcker det inte med att vädja till våra samveten. Vi måste djupare i våra själar. Till plånboken. Ett system som får människor att minska sitt koldioxidavtryck måste: Tas fram inom befintliga system (läs: Skatteverket) Tas fram snabbt (Läs: innan januari 2020) - Internationella avtal kommer ta för lång tid Vara enkelt och konkret Uppmuntra låga utsläpp ...

In this blog post, I'll try to visualize how much energy we handle in our everyday lives. It's not rocket science but it's important to be able to relate quantities of energy to ones everyday life. The SI unit for energy is 1 Joule. Lifting an apple of 100 grams one meter corresponds to one Joule. One kilowatt hour corresponds to 3,6 megajoules. Like a 1 kW heater running for one hour. Comparing One Day of Manual Work with Buying Energy An adult of good fitness can sustain some 50-150 watts when biking one hour. 100 watts for one hour corresponds to 0,1 kWh. The efficiency of human muscles is some 20% , so the input energy of 0,5 kWh will give an output mechanical energy/work of 0,1 kWh. Eight hours of manual work consumes four kWh of input and generate 0,8 kWh of mechanical work. If one would instead choose to work at an office for 8 hours, that person would be able to earn some 1300 SEK after taxes (140 USD or 130 EUR). That money will buy almost 83 liters of di...

This blog will be updated once a month with subjects that I think are relevant. Considering the last months events, the posts should be more frequent. The drought in Sweden continues, and a one-third reduction in food production is forecasted.  The rainfall in the southern parts are only a fraction of the normal levels.  Another consequence of the drought are forest fires are now estimated to have consumed 25 000 hectares of forests (MSB and the Coast Guard). Swedish firefighters are getting help from French, Polish, Portugese firefighters along with countless of volunteers. Still, the fires will probably keep burning for several weeks. This operation will exhaust the firefighters', require a lot of supplies and wear out the equipment. The ability of handling large-scale disasters will be reduced for the short-term future.  CONCLUSION:  The firefighters and volunteers need to revover for months before they will be able to save the day again. Hydro power is an im...