8 Billion Trees … And Counting

The effects of climate change are bearing down upon us. As one of Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” characters used to say, “Doom looms, dearly beloved. Doom looms.” As I recall, this particular character was the undertaker.

Fortunately, there is one thing each of us can do. We can calculate our individual carbon footprint. And then, hopefully, we can take steps to reduce its size.

8 Billion Trees is a carbon offset company that runs large-scale tree planting operations in the Amazon Rainforest, the purpose of which is to help suck carbon out of the air (source: https://8billiontrees.com/.) They reached out to me to take a look at their carbon footprint calculator. The purpose of the 8 Billion Trees calculator is to make it easy to calculate an individual's carbon footprint.

What I like about the 8billiontrees Web site: the listing of several carbon calculators.
What I don’t like, however … clicking on any particular carbon calculator link leads you, not to the carbon calculator, but to another 8billiontrees Web page. This page describes the carbon calculator, then explains how the 8billiontrees calculator is superior. That well may be the case for some users, but not for all.

I recommend that you try the 8 Billion Trees calculator. But also try one or two others for comparison.

TIP: Google® best carbon calculators

One result appears below.

The article describes the author’s experience with each of four calculators. What I like about the article is the pros and cons approach to each calculator. This makes it easier for a new user to decide which calculator to spend his/her time on.

For example …

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I Used 4 Different Carbon Calculators To Work Out My Annual Carbon Footprint. Here Are The Results…
[ EXCERPTS ]
February 3, 2018
By Jennifer Nini
With a plethora of carbon calculators offered online, I road test four popular ones to determine how they work, what my annual carbon emissions are and the essential differences between them…

1. WWF Ecological Footprint Calculator

The World Wildlife Fund’s ‘Ecological Footprint Calculator’ comprises a straight-forward questionnaire about your lifestyle choices and habits. It then calculates your footprint score using the answers you provide. The questions are classified under four main categories: food, home, travel and stuff. It takes just five minutes to complete.

After completing the questionnaire, the calculator results show that my total annual carbon emissions is 5.9 tonnes. It also provides a comparison with others in the world so I know that my footprint is much less than the UK average of 13.56 tonnes and just slightly greater than the world average of 5.28 tonnes.

Pros
The questionnaire is quick and easy to complete and the calculator is user-friendly. There is also additional information and further explanations provided alongside each question to help you best answer the question. Methodology is provided and when you’re finished answering the questions, provides you with the ‘target’ (the 2020 target as set by the UK government) and where you sit against it. For example, according to the calculator my carbon footprint is within acceptable limits, as I use just 52 percent of my share. It also visually shows the breakdown of my carbon footprint so I understand which lifestyle category my footprint is largest. It also provides a link to resources with advice on how to shrink your footprint.
My carbon footprint is amazing according to WWF Footprint Calculator.

Cons
Although the calculator gives an individual footprint score, it is oversimplified and cannot offer exact matches for each question. For example, I live off-grid in a solar powered home and questions about turning lights off or leaving on standby do not factor my complete independence of electricity and utilities companies. I also don’t use many beauty or makeup products and if I do purchase, my eco-friendly product choices are a little more dear than prices of standard over-the-beauty-counter products. Thus answering questions about average expense makes assumptions about how many items I purchase, rather than taking into consideration that I consume less but spend more for quality. Thus for some questions I could only answer with ‘best guesses’ making my result an approximation rather than an exact calculation of my carbon footprint.

Jennifer Nini is a writer, activist and the founding editor of Eco Warrior Princess.
http://ecowarriorprincess.net
https://ecowarriorprincess.net/2018/02/different-carbon-calculators-annual-carbon-footprint/
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Jean Steinhardt served as Librarian, Aramco Services, Engineering Division, for 13 years. He now heads Jean Steinhardt Consulting LLC, producing the same high quality research that he performed for Aramco.

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