“Kyoto is dead. Long live Kyoto.” To give the old monarchical adage a modern ring, Kyoto in one sense is dead. It was killed not only by the recent decision of our government, but also by the collective inaction of all of us over the past decade. However, Kyoto lives. It lives in spirit because it is still the only international agreement attempting to rescue future generations from environmental chaos. Kyoto also lives because it is still possible for us, at this late stage, to achieve our reductions in greenhouse gases.
The first Kyoto target period commences on 1st January, 2008 and terminates at the end of December, 2012. During that time we have agreed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from their present level of 780 megatonnes to 563 megatonnes. Our pledge requires that we cut our present per capita emissions from 24 tonnes to 18.5 tonnes.
The major greenhouse gases are created mainly by the extraction, refining and burning of fossil fuels in the form of oil, coal and natural gas. The refined products are used primarily for transportation, heating and energy, such as electricity. Increases in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions are due largely to oil and natural gas production, particularly exports to the US. In addition, transportation emissions have ballooned because of the growth in truck freight and sales of suvs and light trucks. Waste dumps and agriculture are significantly increasing emissions of methane.
The numbers behind the Kyoto Protocol were explained in the previous article. Rather than repeat those stratospheric statistics, we have converted our present greenhouse gas total in megatonnes to an average per capita figure for each Canadian. The latest estimate from Environment Canada places our overall per capita emissions at approximately 24 tonnes per individual Canadian.
Roughly one quarter, about 6 tonnes, is directly attributable to activities that are an integral part of our personal lifestyles. These activities include heating and cooling our homes, appliance use, heating water, lighting, food consumption, water and sewage, waste disposal, and driving.
The remaining 18 tonnes of per capita emissions result from industrial and commercial activity and from the manufacture and export of Canadian products. The next article in this series will focus on reducing emissions in these sectors and on the role that we as individuals can play as part of the political process in facilitating the overall reductions necessary for Canada to meet its Kyoto targets.
According to our Kyoto commitment, Canada has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 6 pecent below the 1990 level. Using the present per capita figure of 24 tonnes per person, meeting the Kyoto target will require trimming that figure to 18.5 tonnes. If 6 tonnes of the present overall average of 24 tonnes is directly attributable to our personal lifestyles, then we have to limit our individual share of emissions to 4.5 tonnes each – an eminently doable target.
Change is never easy, especially in lifestyles that have developed a natural rhythm of comfort and convenience. But change is essential to moderate environmental degradation and to confront climate disruption. Sacrifice will inevitably be part of the changes but that does not mean we have to subject ourselves to a lifestyle of Spartan asceticism or that we have to bankrupt ourselves by installing expensive technofixes.
The necessary changes will be as much behavioural as technological. For example, initiating a war on waste is neither inconvenient nor expensive. It is estimated that half our electricity is wasted, half the food produced is squandered and half of our garbage is biodegradable and should never end up in a landfill. Megatonnes of harmful gases could be saved by simple conservation at no financial cost to individual Canadians.
Let each of us take the courageous step of focusing our new year’s resolution on the challenge of meeting our Kyoto commitment over the next 5 years.
In preparation for our challenge, we need to establish baseline consumption figures before the end of December to measure our progress. Calculate your consumption of electricity, natural gas, gasoline and water over the past year. Most utility bills provide a consumption history or alternatively phone the utilities and request the figures for 2007.
On 1st January, 2008, record the readings from your electricity, gas, and water meters and the odometer in your vehicle. You can also obtain the details from your utility bills, especially if you do not have a new digital electricity meter. Reading the meters allows you to calculate your consumption from the first day of the year, whereas you will have different starting points if you rely on your bills. Apartment dwellers might not have access to some of these details.
Set up a computer spreadsheet program or simply use graph paper to plot your monthly consumption from your meter readings or bills. Keep a notebook in the glove compartment to track your gasoline purchases. It is important that you record the consumption figures in kilowatt hours, cubic metres of natural gas, cubic litres of water and litres of gasoline and not the dollar amounts. You can track the dollar costs separately for your own interest.
Pledging to cut your energy consumption, and, thereby, your greenhouse gas emissions, gradually but systematically over the next 5 years is a heroic undertaking. Set yourself a reduction target of 5 percent per year. The 25 percent cut in personal emissions over 5 years, although significant, will not achieve our overall Kyoto target. However, it will be an important moral symbol of our individual resolve to combat climate change.
Listed below are the major categories where we will need to focus our individual reduction efforts. It is not possible to precisely quantify our consumption in all of these activities as easily as we can by reading a meter. But we can all pledge to restrict our purchase of goods and services that have a negative impact on the environment.
It is beyond the limits of this article to list all the possible means of conserving resources in these categories. A separate article could be written on each category. However, a profusion of conservation ideas can be found in books, newspapers and magazines and on numerous websites.
Develop suggestions and strategies from your reading and searching and list them under the category headings below. Share and brainstorm ideas with neighbours and circulate these ideas and suggestions in your community. Leading by personal example first is crucial in combating climate change and then building community support for sustainable living will help unleash a countrywide groundswell that is essential to achieve our Kyoto target.
The first Kyoto target period commences on 1st January, 2008 and terminates at the end of December, 2012. During that time we have agreed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from their present level of 780 megatonnes to 563 megatonnes. Our pledge requires that we cut our present per capita emissions from 24 tonnes to 18.5 tonnes.
The major greenhouse gases are created mainly by the extraction, refining and burning of fossil fuels in the form of oil, coal and natural gas. The refined products are used primarily for transportation, heating and energy, such as electricity. Increases in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions are due largely to oil and natural gas production, particularly exports to the US. In addition, transportation emissions have ballooned because of the growth in truck freight and sales of suvs and light trucks. Waste dumps and agriculture are significantly increasing emissions of methane.
The numbers behind the Kyoto Protocol were explained in the previous article. Rather than repeat those stratospheric statistics, we have converted our present greenhouse gas total in megatonnes to an average per capita figure for each Canadian. The latest estimate from Environment Canada places our overall per capita emissions at approximately 24 tonnes per individual Canadian.
Roughly one quarter, about 6 tonnes, is directly attributable to activities that are an integral part of our personal lifestyles. These activities include heating and cooling our homes, appliance use, heating water, lighting, food consumption, water and sewage, waste disposal, and driving.
The remaining 18 tonnes of per capita emissions result from industrial and commercial activity and from the manufacture and export of Canadian products. The next article in this series will focus on reducing emissions in these sectors and on the role that we as individuals can play as part of the political process in facilitating the overall reductions necessary for Canada to meet its Kyoto targets.
According to our Kyoto commitment, Canada has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 6 pecent below the 1990 level. Using the present per capita figure of 24 tonnes per person, meeting the Kyoto target will require trimming that figure to 18.5 tonnes. If 6 tonnes of the present overall average of 24 tonnes is directly attributable to our personal lifestyles, then we have to limit our individual share of emissions to 4.5 tonnes each – an eminently doable target.
Change is never easy, especially in lifestyles that have developed a natural rhythm of comfort and convenience. But change is essential to moderate environmental degradation and to confront climate disruption. Sacrifice will inevitably be part of the changes but that does not mean we have to subject ourselves to a lifestyle of Spartan asceticism or that we have to bankrupt ourselves by installing expensive technofixes.
The necessary changes will be as much behavioural as technological. For example, initiating a war on waste is neither inconvenient nor expensive. It is estimated that half our electricity is wasted, half the food produced is squandered and half of our garbage is biodegradable and should never end up in a landfill. Megatonnes of harmful gases could be saved by simple conservation at no financial cost to individual Canadians.
Let each of us take the courageous step of focusing our new year’s resolution on the challenge of meeting our Kyoto commitment over the next 5 years.
In preparation for our challenge, we need to establish baseline consumption figures before the end of December to measure our progress. Calculate your consumption of electricity, natural gas, gasoline and water over the past year. Most utility bills provide a consumption history or alternatively phone the utilities and request the figures for 2007.
On 1st January, 2008, record the readings from your electricity, gas, and water meters and the odometer in your vehicle. You can also obtain the details from your utility bills, especially if you do not have a new digital electricity meter. Reading the meters allows you to calculate your consumption from the first day of the year, whereas you will have different starting points if you rely on your bills. Apartment dwellers might not have access to some of these details.
Set up a computer spreadsheet program or simply use graph paper to plot your monthly consumption from your meter readings or bills. Keep a notebook in the glove compartment to track your gasoline purchases. It is important that you record the consumption figures in kilowatt hours, cubic metres of natural gas, cubic litres of water and litres of gasoline and not the dollar amounts. You can track the dollar costs separately for your own interest.
Pledging to cut your energy consumption, and, thereby, your greenhouse gas emissions, gradually but systematically over the next 5 years is a heroic undertaking. Set yourself a reduction target of 5 percent per year. The 25 percent cut in personal emissions over 5 years, although significant, will not achieve our overall Kyoto target. However, it will be an important moral symbol of our individual resolve to combat climate change.
Listed below are the major categories where we will need to focus our individual reduction efforts. It is not possible to precisely quantify our consumption in all of these activities as easily as we can by reading a meter. But we can all pledge to restrict our purchase of goods and services that have a negative impact on the environment.
It is beyond the limits of this article to list all the possible means of conserving resources in these categories. A separate article could be written on each category. However, a profusion of conservation ideas can be found in books, newspapers and magazines and on numerous websites.
Develop suggestions and strategies from your reading and searching and list them under the category headings below. Share and brainstorm ideas with neighbours and circulate these ideas and suggestions in your community. Leading by personal example first is crucial in combating climate change and then building community support for sustainable living will help unleash a countrywide groundswell that is essential to achieve our Kyoto target.
• Driving: Approximately half our personal greenhouse gases are generated by driving.• Heating: Close to 30 percent of our personal emissions result from heating our homes.• Cooling: Air conditioning overloads the electricity system, partly coal-fired, in the summer.• Cooking: Both electrical and gas-fired cooking appliances increase greenhouse gases.• Appliances: Use a watt meter to measure the electricity consumption of your appliances.• Heating water: Investigate pre-heating devices for warming water, especially in winter.• Water: Municipalities spend half their electrical operating budgets on water and sewage treatment.• Lighting: Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs.• Food: Eating locally produced food can shave 20 percent off your greenhouse gas total.• Waste: You could save another 20 percent with one small bag of garbage per month.• Shopping: Consider the environmental burden of every purchase you make.• Flying: Fly only for family – “love miles” in the words of George Monbiot.
Kyoto is a journey that starts in the hearts and minds of individual Canadians, not in corporate boardrooms or cabinet meetings or the corridors of bureaucratic power. It is our individual attitudes and actions that will determine the fate of the vision enshrined in Kyoto. Let us live our values, let us initiate the lifestyle changes one step at a time and build a sustainable future for unborn generations. In setting a personal example of restraint and sacrifice, we can then demand more enlightened environmental policies from our politicians.
