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The next Surgeon General's warning not to breathe the air?
Warning! Warning! Danger! Danger! -- Carbon approaching! Carbon approaching!
Anyone in their 50s or older will remember when in 1965 the Surgeon General's office issued a warning that tobacco smoking was dangerous. To young children at the time, it sounded quite scary, especially if your parents or older relatives smoked. The proclamation probably prevented 100s of thousands or millions of American children from becoming smokers -- and from emitting 100s of thousands of tons of tobacco-derived green house gases into the atmosphere the past 40+ years (not to mention).
So what government or NGO proclamation about Global Warming will shock the current young generation into action against worldwide climate change? Who or what group will write and issue such a skull & crossbones galvanizer to wake up our children? Where is it? And if it were written, how would it read? Here's suggested wording:
<<<<<< ----- >>>>>> <<<<<< ----- >>>>>> <<<<<< ----- >>>>>>
"Warning! -- Emitting or Inhaling the Green House Gases CO2, CH4, N2O, CF4 and others May Be Hazardous to Your Planet's Atmosphere & Your own Health. Not purchasing carbon offsets to match your carbon footprint, or not actively reducing your carbon footprint, may lead to end-stage global warming, metastatic species extinctions worldwide, and a clinically significant reduction of your own lifespan."
<<<<<< ----- >>>>>> <<<<<< ----- >>>>>> <<<<<< ----- >>>>>>
Well, perhaps we should all contact the Surgeon General's office and suggest such a next-generation warning against this daily health threat to every American child? -- and against every Citizen of the World too. Such a label should be printed on every energy-intensive product whose footprint is not negated by matching offsets. Or, issued in conjunction with the performance of any service with an excessive carbon footprint.
Take action today to make sure your children don't grow up smoking the atmosphere. Just say "No!" to carbon.
Huskily & warmly yours,
David A. Palella
Caped Carbon Crusader
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, CA
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com
http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella
http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com
Reference: The Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-92)
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Showing posts with label CO2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CO2. Show all posts
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
The Carbon Euro of the Developing World
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Standard International Carbon Micro Credit (SICMC) = 2 kilograms of CO2
SICMC = MicroCO2 = mCO2 = myCO2 = myCO
The Carbon Euro of the Developing World
International NGOs should agree to an international standard for Carbon Micro Credits (CMCs) and promulgate it for uniform worldwide use. A SICMC could be defined as follows, for example:
For normal sustenance in the Developing World the average human being requires 1,100 food calories, which requires XYZ BTUs (British Thermal Units) to cook with biomass, which if offset by cooking with solar means NM kilograms of CO2 are not emitted into the atmosphere because XY kilograms of biomass were not burnt.
NM kilograms of CO2 would then be the unit of measurement used to quantify produced CMCs worldwide. I guesstimate a SICMC would be around 1,800 - 2,000 grams/day of CO2 -- so let's say exactly 2 kilograms.
A recent article in WIRED magazine said producing a Big Mac (540 calories) results in the emission of 4.7 lbs of green house gases (GHG), or very close to 2 kilograms again. Diets in the Developing World are obviously not so energy intensive as beefy Big Macs, but the SICMC rule of thumb above is probably close to the true figure.
Once a SICMC was defined and agreed to worldwide by accreditation and auditing agencies/companies and NGOs, then auditing of solar cooking-based or Uganda stove-based CMC projects would be greatly streamlined. It would be highly ridiculous to try to quantify and audit the CMCs produced person by person, or family by family, or project by project in the Developing World.
Depending on the market price of a ton of carbon, a CMC is worth only about 3 - 5 cents. For a family of 5 in the Developing World it adds up to 15 - 25 cents/day. Us rich folks in the Developed World should let the Poor living on a dollar a day make an extra 15 - 25 cents per day without auditing them excessively. People have to eat and have to cook. They won't not cook and not eat to scam the system.
Moreover, in many parts of the Developing World the landscape has been denuded of natural biomass, leading to cooking with dried cow dung, among other highly-polluting carbon sources. The scarcity of naturally-occurring and easily available carbon/fuel sources means the average family spends 20 - 50 % of their daily income on imported manufactured fuel such as charcoal or propane. Hence, again, participants in a CMC program are highly financially incentivized to follow the rules and cook with solar or their Uganda stove.
In sum, I call here for NGOs worldwide to take action to define, standardize, promulgate and support the SICMC. Such NGOs would include the:
United Nations / UNICEF
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
OECD
World Bank
European Commission / European Union
ASEAN
Asian Development Bank
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
National Wildlife Federation
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and
many others.
Once a Standard International Carbon Micro-Credit (SICMC) is defined as 2 kgs (for example), then it is simple to calculate the market value of 2 kgs of CO2 (3-5 cents), and then convert this to equivalent cell phone minutes (1 - 5 minutes..?).
The number of cell phone minutes will vary by carrier and depend on local economics, but this is fine. Most people in the developing world transact business or call locally. But the SICMC could become the financial lingua franca or the Carbon Euro of of the Developing World, especially in Africa where most mobile carriers transact business in multiple countries.
Globally & warmly yours,
David Palella
Caped Carbon Crusader
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, CA
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com
http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella
http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com
*****
Standard International Carbon Micro Credit (SICMC) = 2 kilograms of CO2
SICMC = MicroCO2 = mCO2 = myCO2 = myCO
The Carbon Euro of the Developing World
International NGOs should agree to an international standard for Carbon Micro Credits (CMCs) and promulgate it for uniform worldwide use. A SICMC could be defined as follows, for example:
For normal sustenance in the Developing World the average human being requires 1,100 food calories, which requires XYZ BTUs (British Thermal Units) to cook with biomass, which if offset by cooking with solar means NM kilograms of CO2 are not emitted into the atmosphere because XY kilograms of biomass were not burnt.
NM kilograms of CO2 would then be the unit of measurement used to quantify produced CMCs worldwide. I guesstimate a SICMC would be around 1,800 - 2,000 grams/day of CO2 -- so let's say exactly 2 kilograms.
A recent article in WIRED magazine said producing a Big Mac (540 calories) results in the emission of 4.7 lbs of green house gases (GHG), or very close to 2 kilograms again. Diets in the Developing World are obviously not so energy intensive as beefy Big Macs, but the SICMC rule of thumb above is probably close to the true figure.
Once a SICMC was defined and agreed to worldwide by accreditation and auditing agencies/companies and NGOs, then auditing of solar cooking-based or Uganda stove-based CMC projects would be greatly streamlined. It would be highly ridiculous to try to quantify and audit the CMCs produced person by person, or family by family, or project by project in the Developing World.
Depending on the market price of a ton of carbon, a CMC is worth only about 3 - 5 cents. For a family of 5 in the Developing World it adds up to 15 - 25 cents/day. Us rich folks in the Developed World should let the Poor living on a dollar a day make an extra 15 - 25 cents per day without auditing them excessively. People have to eat and have to cook. They won't not cook and not eat to scam the system.
Moreover, in many parts of the Developing World the landscape has been denuded of natural biomass, leading to cooking with dried cow dung, among other highly-polluting carbon sources. The scarcity of naturally-occurring and easily available carbon/fuel sources means the average family spends 20 - 50 % of their daily income on imported manufactured fuel such as charcoal or propane. Hence, again, participants in a CMC program are highly financially incentivized to follow the rules and cook with solar or their Uganda stove.
In sum, I call here for NGOs worldwide to take action to define, standardize, promulgate and support the SICMC. Such NGOs would include the:
United Nations / UNICEF
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
OECD
World Bank
European Commission / European Union
ASEAN
Asian Development Bank
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
National Wildlife Federation
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and
many others.
Once a Standard International Carbon Micro-Credit (SICMC) is defined as 2 kgs (for example), then it is simple to calculate the market value of 2 kgs of CO2 (3-5 cents), and then convert this to equivalent cell phone minutes (1 - 5 minutes..?).
The number of cell phone minutes will vary by carrier and depend on local economics, but this is fine. Most people in the developing world transact business or call locally. But the SICMC could become the financial lingua franca or the Carbon Euro of of the Developing World, especially in Africa where most mobile carriers transact business in multiple countries.
Globally & warmly yours,
David Palella
Caped Carbon Crusader
CARBON MANNA UNLIMITED
San Diego, CA
tel: 858-793-0741
email: dpalella@san.rr.com
http://community.keithferrazzi.com/profile/DavidPalella
http://carbonmanna.blogspot.com
*****
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