13
votes
What form of electrical lighting has the smallest energy-footprint?
i signed up just so i could make this comment. THelper♦ provided a good link to a DOE report on this topic, which i was researching because my roommate is skeptical about the advantages of efficient ...
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7
votes
What should I do with coal that I have been given?
Well, if you are really into it and quite handy, you could turn it into activated charcoal, and then add it to your soil!
Grind it into small bits, heat it anaerobically, then introduce high-pressure ...
- 248
7
votes
Does responsible living leave more space to unresponsible living?
On the positive side economically you are expanding the market for sustainable products, which will help lower their price and make them more likely to be developed.
Another reason to make the effort ...
- 89
7
votes
Accepted
What is more sustainable, using a mechanical pencil or a pen?
It is hard to say because there is such a wide variation in ink formulations. Also, no company is going to tell you what is in their ink, as they will consider that a trade secret. That being said, ...
- 862
7
votes
Accepted
Where can I find conversion factors for calculating Ecological Footprints?
The ecological footprint method does not directly convert consumed resources into global hectares, at least not via a single conversion factor.
Instead first the amount of required land/sea area in ...
- 14.5k
6
votes
Lowest impact transatlantic crossing
Unfortunately--and I realize this is not very helpful--the best choice in terms of carbon footprint is almost certainly not to go. It's a good point that freighters are likely to be much more ...
- 61
5
votes
Accepted
What's the most environmentally friendly micro USB charging cable...if any?
Just buy a used USB cable. You can go to a computer recycler and they will have thousands.
- 384
5
votes
How does footprint per dollar vs footprint per kilo compare for different methods of raising livestock?
I have an incomplete answer, but at least this is something to get the conversation started. At the bottom of your comments, you restate the question as "is organic any better because it costs more, ...
5
votes
Accepted
Why refrigerant cooler is more popular than evaporative cooler?
You have to also consider the climate where each type of cooler will be used and how each type of cooler works.
Refrigeration coolers transfer heat from inside a building to the outside. However, the ...
- 3,517
4
votes
Does responsible living leave more space to unresponsible living?
The social signals you send might well be more important than the economic ones. Consumers are not rational. Look at what people spend money and time on - it does not make them happier. We know what ...
4
votes
Accepted
Does responsible living leave more space to unresponsible living?
Yes, to a certain extent. In economics this is called the 'rebound effect'.
The rebound effect is that the effectiveness of a new techology or measure is reduced because it is counter-acted by other ...
- 14.5k
4
votes
Accepted
How does the S&P 500 ESG Index actually rank companies?
According to news reports Tesla was removed from the S&P 500 ESG Index because it no longer met minimum corporate governance requirements concerning: environmental, social and government standards....
- 3,517
4
votes
Which global fertility rate would allow the human population to adjust to Earth's carrying capacity while maintaining an acceptable dependency ratio?
I think this is question is difficult to answer for several reasons:
There is no agreed upon carrying capacity of the Earth. The Global Footprint Network organization does a nice job estimating the ...
- 14.5k
4
votes
Does human activity result in a net increase or decrease in co2?
Humans have released around 3 × 10^11 tons of carbon since the industrial revolution.
Agriculture, particularly modern industrial agriculture, releases massive amounts of carbon from the soil which ...
- 1,603
4
votes
Organic or packaging free food?
It's all a matter of how you do the counting! If you take into account how much diversity you destroy, non-organic food is worse than "too much" cardboard packaging. But how do you count this? Life ...
- 1,407
3
votes
Accepted
One single person's equal share in the world's resources
To expand on THelper's answer, and to provide an answer to just one part of the question:
How much land would each person have if everything were distributed evenly?
The back-up research to the ...
- 11.8k
3
votes
Does responsible living leave more space to unresponsible living?
Your life is never worthless if you are setting a good example.
You can increase the worth of your efforts by spreading the word, by setting up programmes in your area to help people recycle etc, ...
- 425
3
votes
How does footprint per dollar vs footprint per kilo compare for different methods of raising livestock?
Since asking the question I have been thinking about this quite a bit, and I believe the fundamental difference boils down to the balance between preventing and repairing negative externalities:
...
- 11.8k
3
votes
What form of electrical lighting has the smallest energy-footprint?
There is a lot of efficiency variation that depends on the quality of the LEDs. Cheap LEDs are no better than CFLs.
High quality LEDs from brands like Cree or Philips can be over double the ...
- 279
2
votes
Should I use my wood fireplace?
Be careful with wood fireplaces — most emit A LOT of very bad particulate matter!
Burning wood in a common type of stove may result in more particulate matter than a diesel truck and may carry more ...
- 2,579
2
votes
Accepted
Which is the most sustainable type of pencil?
When faced with a bunch of different vague tradeoffs like this go with a 'which has the lowest total cost of ownership?
Starting at that, then try to internalize the issues involved in making is ...
- 7,207
2
votes
What is more sustainable, using a mechanical pencil or a pen?
There are two primary issues here, carbon and plastics.
I would expect carbon emissions to be higher for ink, but not significantly. Transport/logistics/retail would be similar for both products and ...
- 121
2
votes
Accepted
Is there a website that lists the environmental impact and/or carbon footprint of many products and practices?
There are lots of websites but all sites I know are aimed at researchers (so not intended for the general public) and usually apply to a specific country only.
Take for example this US Life Cycle ...
- 14.5k
2
votes
One single person's equal share in the world's resources
I think the closest measure to what you are asking is the ecological footprint. It's a commonly-used measure for the amount of productive land and sea area one needs to support a particular activity, ...
- 14.5k
1
vote
What is the maximum sustainable population of the earth?
The largest issue with answering this question is that it depends heavily on other factors, some of which are quite hard to predict. Consider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_intensity , which ...
- 139
1
vote
What's the most environmentally friendly micro USB charging cable...if any?
You can always learn to solder, and make your own cables. By re-using electronic scrap you'll prevent the need for new cables. Then it can be as long as you need.
- 375
1
vote
How much is the environmental benefit of organic food offset by its higher economic cost when purchased?
Is there a metric to measure average 'environmental impact' per economic dollar?
I don't think that this is possible. If you're working in the oil and gas sector, your environmental impact per dollar ...
- 426
1
vote
Ecological Footprint: United States National Yield 2012
The Global Footprint Network recently started publishing ecological footprint data free of charge:
Global Footprint Network’s National Footprint Accounts 2017 Public Data Package is provided at no ...
- 14.5k
1
vote
What is more sustainable, using a mechanical pencil or a pen?
Very few people use fountain pens today. It follows that few such pens are made. A good fountain pen lasts a long time if you take good care of it. If you have to choose between Parker and Mont Blanc, ...
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