I often wonder (and worry) how much impact certain actions I take have on the world in the long run. Whether these actions are tossing out trash, using a disposable spoon, driving a car, or flying to another city, I feel the impact of these everyday actions should be more widely known. That being said, I’m not really aware of the impact these actions have, so we’re here to learn together!
Today I’ll be analyzing… nothing, actually. Instead, I’ll give a brief intro to the subject with my thoughts while leaving everyone in suspense.
Most discussions I’ve seen around measuring environmental impact aim to calculate the amount of CO2 produced by certain actions. The main concern I have with statements estimating environmental impact is that the assumptions used in the calculation of the environmental impact are not clearly listed or viewable. This is the primary reason I’ve decided to outline, step-by-step, the calculations (using relatively simple math) that leads me to my results.
I see a number of benefits to breaking down this analysis instead of stating a generic number that could apply to anyone. Here’s a few:
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Without seeing the process, there’s no way to check whether YOUR specific actions are exactly what is described in the argument. For instance, when reading the statement “each year, driving your own car to work produces X amount of CO2 on average”, it’s not a simple matter to see whether your car is above or below average. When the steps are visible, you can plug in your own numbers and see the results.
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Often there is a range of possible values to use during the assumptions phase. However, biases can skew the specific value selected to the extremes of this range. For one example, there are cars that get 20 mpg fuel economy, and there are cars that get 40 mpg fuel economy. When such details are hidden, not only is it difficult to determine whether the end result is representative of your situation, but it’s not easy to tell if the author is significantly biased.
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A near impossible problem to solve is determining how far the environmental impact calculation stretches. What I mean by that is, if the impact of flying in a plane is analyzed, the simplest way to estimate the environmental impact is to calculate the fuel the plane burns during that flight. But shouldn’t the impact include the fuel consumption used to transport the jet fuel to the airport? How about the energy used in the gas refinery to produce the fuel? Should we factor in a fraction of the environmental impact that building the refinery had? I could go on, but you get the idea: most actions are interconnected with other actions because modern day civilization is built on a foundation of other technologies.
For all of you waiting in suspense, we will get to some actual math and calculations next time!
Weekly Extreme Exception
Perhaps the most environmentally friendly helicopter flights ever are those performed for the Sikorsky Prize. To earn the prize, a human-powered helicopter was to be built that could meet certain flight duration and altitude goals. It took 33 years for the accomplishment to happen, but a university team was eventually able to take home the prize. The overall construction of the vehicle is quite impressive, utilizing nearly every lightweight engineering trick in the book. It’s quite a work of art!
