Carbon debt using a bottom-up analysis

Human activity results in greenhouse gas emissions, the most important of which is carbon dioxide. The energy consumed in the home we live in, our place of work, and places where we take our leisure all use electricity and heat, which, until recently, have largely been provided by the combustion of fossil fuels. An individual’s personal circumstances are important, for example, whether they own or rent their home, and whether it is a house or an apartment; such considerations will also determine what they can do in terms of reducing the carbon dioxide emissions from their home. Travel involves cars, trains, planes, and, to a much lesser extent, ships, all of which rely heavily on hydrocarbons. And fossil fuels play an important role in food production and its packaging and transportation, the clothes we wear and the products we buy. Embedded carbon in the form of wood, paper, and books is increasingly being recycled rather than being released into the atmosphere but, ultimately, this carbon may be released to the environment; even embedded carbon in plastics may be released when disposed of efficiently in incinerators. This chapter will address an individual’s annual and lifetime carbon emissions using a bottom-up approach. As in the top-down analysis in Chapter 4 , it will take as a case study someone born in 1950 and sum the carbon emissions associated with all their activities during their lifetime.Emissions by individuals born in the period since 1950 will also be estimated using this approach.