Joel’s words: Whether or not you believe carbon dioxide is the cause of global warming or not, it is harmful to the environment and reducing your carbon footprint is a great idea.

I evaluated myself at one of the several sites mentioned [Carbon Footprint], one that is based out of the UK but has data to compare me to my peers here in central U.S.A. The calculations for the primary emissions are based on a combination of metrics from the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the UK’s Department for Transport, and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). P.s. it was fun.

I gave US dollar figures for various types of fuel (electricity, coal, natural gas, LP, others) use at home and the results:

Total for your home = 7.437 tonnes of CO2
Total for your cars = 3.124 tonnes of CO2
Total secondary footprint = 4.813 tonnes of CO2
Total = 15.374 tonnes of CO2

* The average footprint for people in United States is 20.4 tonnes.
* The average for the industrial nations is about 11 tonnes.
* The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 tonnes.
* To combat climate change the worldwide average needs to reduce to 2 tonnes.

The final stage of the evaluation reveals several options to donate to offset one’s personal carbon footprint!

Happy Birthday, Green Options!

Green Options, that community of superheroes dedicated to environmental resources, education, and discussion, doesn’t have to fly around the Earth at an incredible speed, reversing our rotation and sending us back in time to make our reality better, cleaner and, most importantly, more sustainable. No, what the team at Green Options has been doing for us, while our beautiful planet revolves normally in the vastness of the universe for the past year, is combine together the expertise of a diverse group of talented individuals who are committed to ecology in the broadest sense.

There are many people to appreciate in the one-year-old GO project- from Publisher David Anderson and Senior Editor Jeff McIntire-Strasburg to the many blog writers and podcasters who activate their growing readership in amazing (and interesting) ways. The robust, link-layered posts bring us from our home garden to science class to Wall Street to the White House, with an eye toward internationalgreen trends, too. Don’t forget the kids on this trip!

“The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.”

The artist and author, Yankees fan, and horticulturist Ketzel Levine graciously was the voice this morning on NPR Morning Edition for the grand sugar maple tree of New England. Although her home base is in Oregon, Ms. Levine’s passion for talking plants lead her to the land of flowing sap in order to bring us her timely report.

I say passion for talking plants because Ms. Levine “recently launched her own NPR blog, ‘Talking Plants,’ where her trademark wit and irreverence – and her passion for plants – will have free reign.” She wonders with us all:

Frankly, the whole story’s a bit out of control. Imagine trying to predict the ending! Will Man save Ms. Maple? Will Climate Change conquer them both?

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Humor: Back in ’05, (that’s 2005), the Grissom family has been tapping trees for hundreds of years -since 1773- heedless of the sin of sweetness that contributed to the decline and ultimate demise of both Puritanism and low-carb diets. The All Things Considered audio report by Robert Siegel warns all who will heed in an 7+ minute report.