12
votes
Accepted
For the exactly same income, does a person pollute more when living in a big city or in a small town?
Quick summary:
The city and the country both have positives and negatives in pollution production... the data here suggests perhaps the urban core produces slightly less pollution (depending upon how ...
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11
votes
Accepted
Is working from home a more sustainable choice?
Here's a piece of the answer for the U.S. Hopefully others can provide additional details covering other countries or regions.
MAJOR EDIT: Comments pointed out that something seemed fishy. I double-...
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10
votes
Accepted
What life-style decision can I make to reduce my carbon footprint most efficiently?
The simplest rule to follow is this:
Buy Less Stuff
Some people replace large articles of furniture (couch, fridge, bed) every 3-5 years, often for reasons of style or fashion. That stuff has to ...
- 1,877
9
votes
What life-style decision can I make to reduce my carbon footprint most efficiently?
I already provided an answer to this question here, which was written based on personal experience and knowledge, but in this second answer I wanted to address some interesting details and specific ...
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6
votes
How can I make my family understand my CO2-emissions-related hesitation to fly in order to spend time with them?
Carbon offsets aren't a perfect solution by any means, but provided the activity being funded by the offset is genuine and sensible for the long term, carbon offsets could certainly be considered to ...
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5
votes
Sustainable Alternative to Aluminium Foil?
I'd suggest getting a high-quality enamel baking dish - enamel/ceramic, in my experience, is much better at being "non-stick" than Teflon, lasts a lot longer, as well as avoiding the potential risks ...
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5
votes
Being a sustainable Digital Nomad in a Van - First Steps
Three routes:
A: Your van has all your worldly possessions.
B: In addition you have a place you can store stuff.
C: Use a car towable R.V.
A: Everything is in your van.
Consider removing the ...
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5
votes
Accepted
How can I make my family understand my CO2-emissions-related hesitation to fly in order to spend time with them?
KubaFYI, in light of the update you made to your question, I am submitting a second answer for your consideration.
The title of the question is "How can I make my family understand my CO2-emissions-...
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4
votes
What harmful products are used in shampoo, conditioner and body wash that I should avoid?
Here is a good resource for compounds which can be harmful, although they are more related to health rather than environmental concern. That said, anything which is toxic to humans is likely toxic to ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Sustainable Alternative to Aluminium Foil?
I want to frame-challenge your assumption that aluminum is a poor choice due to difficulties in recycling. The linked question refers to "aluminum food packaging" such as soda cans, which is a ...
3
votes
How can I support the recycling, but not the new production of aluminum?
You can advocate for a carbon tax. When fossil fuel energy costs more, recycling is more economically valuable. Cheap power means easier to mine new aluminum. We really need a carbon tax for many ...
3
votes
How can I support the recycling, but not the new production of aluminum?
You (probably) cannot do it on demand side.
The reason this is impossible is that 99% of aluminum users don't care if their aluminum comes from recycled sources.
Let's say there's need for 100 units ...
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3
votes
Is there standard methodology for assessing how environmentally friendly a particular lifestyle is?
The best measure for comparing lifestyles from an ecological point of view is probably the ecological footprint. An ecological footprint is a measure for the amount of productive land and sea area ...
- 14.4k
3
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How can I make my family understand my CO2-emissions-related hesitation to fly in order to spend time with them?
I recently returned to NZ after visiting family in the UK for Christmas. This is a round trip of some 40,000km. My solution is to pay for some 60 trees to be planted, here in NZ.
This is not a perfect ...
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3
votes
How can I make my family understand my CO2-emissions-related hesitation to fly in order to spend time with them?
"1.3 tonnes of CO2" is a figure that someone came up with by averaging the fuel per passenger trip and then converting it to emissions. It's not a number you actually need to worry about.
Think ...
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2
votes
Do happy people live more sustainably?
The largest predictor of sustainable consumption is poverty. The diverse rich all consume far more resources. Because there is a robust relationship between income and health, and even between income ...
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2
votes
What life-style decision can I make to reduce my carbon footprint most efficiently?
General recommendations
In many households in the developed world the largest sources of CO2 emissions are transportation (car fuel), electricity, heating and food. This means that the average ...
- 14.4k
2
votes
What life-style decision can I make to reduce my carbon footprint most efficiently?
My answers are from general browsing on reputable American environmental news and urban planning websites so forgive me for not citing scientific and exact research.
transportation (i.e. get an ...
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2
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What will life be like in 2050?
Fossil fuels are a finite, non-renewable resource. Finite, non-renewable resources eventually run out. That is inevitable. What happens in practice, though, is that as a non-renewable resource runs ...
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2
votes
What will life be like in 2050?
We have to first be honest with ourselves in that we do not really know how the future will unfold.
What we do know is that there are currently 1.5 billion people on the planet enjoying a high-energy ...
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1
vote
Sustainable Alternative to Aluminium Foil?
Not possible to recycle foil everywhere, here in Ireland for instance. Because it is not clean before going to the centres
for recycling. The same applies to cling film, which you have another name ...
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1
vote
Is there standard methodology for assessing how environmentally friendly a particular lifestyle is?
As others have said, there isn't a single place to look.
For the cars, however, "NextGreenCar" has a comparison tool you can use. Using your figures of 100 miles a week (so 62,400 miles over your 12 ...
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1
vote
What will life be like in 2050?
About pollution: there are two kinds of pollutants: local (carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter) and global (carbon dioxide, ozone-depleting substances).
Ozone depletion ...
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1
vote
Being a sustainable Digital Nomad in a Van - First Steps
Emissions per passenger kilometre will be high in your van, unless you carry more people! Consider picking up hitchhikers or doing ride sharing :)
1
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For the exactly same income, does a person pollute more when living in a big city or in a small town?
Much depends on the local hierarchy of settlement. Canada tends to have smaller numbers of larger cities. There are relatively few cities in the 50-100K class.
At present I live on a farm. (I grow ...
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1
vote
For the exactly same income, does a person pollute more when living in a big city or in a small town?
My contribution to pollution comes from three main areas:
my travel, both the daily commute as well as shopping, visiting, and recreation
how I heat my house
stuff I buy and throw out
If you truly ...
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1
vote
How can I make my family understand my CO2-emissions-related hesitation to fly in order to spend time with them?
How can I make my family understand my CO2-emissions-related hesitation to fly in order to spend time with them?
You want to keep your carbon footprint as low as possible, I get that. But, I feel I ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible