CARBON FOOTPRINT

CARBON FOOTPRINT

What is Carbon Footprint?

Carbon footprint is nothing but the total amount of the combined emission of the "Green House Gases"(GHG) by an individual, gadget, event or an organization. Carbon Footprint is measured in grams (g) in SI.

What is GHG?

GHG are the gases responsible for the absorption and emission of radiation within the thermal infrared range. The increase of these gases in the atmosphere than the normal level is known as Global warming. 

The primary green house gases in the earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone.

Gas	Formula	Contribution (%)
Water vapor	H2O	36 – 72 %
Carbon dioxide	CO2	9 – 26 %
Methane	CH4	4 – 9 %
Ozone	O3	3 – 7 %

The above table gives the contribution of these gases in the atmosphere.

Gadgets and its Footprints

As this blog is about being green, and mainly used for bringing the gadgets and its parent company's contribution to light, I present you with the information that was found in the article on the Telegraph news website. 

In the article the Footprint for the various gadgets that we use daily are taken into account. While you read this, you try to calculate the footprint that you create everyday using these.

Apple Macbook 2010

Footprint : 9g CO2 per hour

The MacBook 2010 produces 9g of CO2 per hour when its just idle. This in comparison with an average 60 watt lightbulb is very meagre. As the lightbulb produces 48.4g of CO2 per hour.

Even in one of my previous article in this blog, I've mentioned about the Eco-Friendly Macbooks that apple produce. Overall, Apple whose company footprint is 9.6 million metric tons, claims that it has reduced the MacBook's carbon emission by 12% in the last four years despite increasing the power of the machines.

Really an Eco-friendly company. Happy that I use an Eco-Friendly iMac.

Google Search

Footprint : 0.2g to 7g of CO2 per search (depending on the time and gadget involved)

It is reported that 7g of CO2 is produced per Google search, making  two searches equivalent  to boiling  a kettle (15g of CO2). It is to be noted that in the year 2009, more than 200 million Google searches were performed everyday.

Flatscreen Television

Footprint : between 215kg to 269kg CO2 on an average per year.

Does the number above shock you? Well this is the figure that one will get if they use a 34-37inch Plasma- screen television for 6-5 hours a day, which uses 264 watts of power which is in turn equivalent to  215kg of CO2 per year. Whereas a normal LCD Television uses 215kg of carbon a year. Just wonder, if this is the figure for just one single LCD television, what will be the total amount of CO2 per year of all the televisions in the world!!! Some thing to ponder about.

Mobilephone

Footprint : 47kg of CO2 per year based on a typical two-minute usage every day.

Well this is the most common type of gadget that each and everyone of us uses. Nowadays, it is not just the business people that uses a mobile. It has become a must-have gadget to every person in a family, from Father to the youngest child in the house. People dont just stop with one, but have multiple mobilephones.

But the above figure is just for a 2 minute usage. Well the average estimate of time spent on a mobile phone every minute produces 57g of CO2. And when the average usage for a person is one hour a day, its equivalent to the same amount of emission as flying from London to NewYork one way, ie., 125 million tonnes of CO2. 

Making a landline phone call uses only one-third of the power it takes to make the same call on a mobile phone.

Therefore before buying a mobile phone, check the SAR levels for the mobile phone.

Well I hope that this article has shed little light on the seriousness of Carbon Footprint. So I hope everyone of you will be careful about your Carbon Footprint. 

Think Green. Be Green.