On becoming carbon neutral
Our family plans to become carbon neutral over the next 12 months. We are fed up with the Federal Government doing nothing to reduce the country’s carbon emissions so we are going to do our bit. At least our kids, and their kids, will be able to say, “Well, our parents, and grand parents did what they could to stem the greenhouse tide”, which is more than John Howard’s offspring will be able to say about him.
Becoming carbon neutral involves first calculating how much carbon (mainly as CO2) you are putting into the atmosphere, through things such as driving, shopping and using electrical appliances. You then ‘offset’ this amount by investing time, money or energy in activities such as planting trees or contributing to renewable energy projects.
It follows from this that the less carbon you produce, the less offsetting you will need to do, so reducing, reusing and recycling is the key to the process.
Our family comprises my partner Hilary, her 15 yo daughter, Becky, and myself. My son, Toby (16 yo) is here on alternate weekends, and my other two (older) sons, less frequently.
There’s plenty of advice on line and elsewhere about how to reduce carbon emissions but not much of it is quantified. We intend to do this, and will no doubt have many interesting dilemmas to resolve in the process.
