Chemistry for a sustainable world

1. Addy

   January 11, 2008 at 1:16 pm

   Does anybody know about this site ( http://www.earthlab.com ) ? I have seen other environmental sites with carbon calculators like yahoo and tree huggers, but I am wondering what the deal with earthlab.com is? I saw they also published a list last month of the top ten greenest cities ( http://www.efficientenergy.org/Top-Ten-Green-Cities-in-the-United-States ). Does anyone know if this site is better than the others? Fill me in!

   I took their carbon foot print test and it was pretty interesting, they said that I put out 4.5 tons of carbon, does anyone know about any other tests?

2. nearlynothingbutnovels

   January 11, 2008 at 2:52 pm

   Addy, thanks for joining the discussion and for the links. I did not remember anything about earthlab so I did some searching. It is a non-profit organization registered in the State of Washington. Apparently, it was the first to offer an online “carbon and lifestyle” environmental calculator of this type (I haven’t verified that claim). I’m not sure how valid their methods are, but they seem very sincere and professional. I’m not really sure why I’m being so cautious- they seem fine and have lots of material for education and practical ways of helping th environment.

   Here are a few key links that might help:

   http://www.secstate.wa.gov/charities/search_detail.aspx?charity_id=24178
   http://earthlabfoundation.org/ (the overall organization)
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthlab

   Earthlab is linked to some other big nonprofit groups, including Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th hour.

   Searching on earthlab.com is a little confusing simply because there are a lot of other organizations with similar names, or even the same name, including some government labs.

   Thanks again for the links and comment, Jim

3. nearlynothingbutnovels

   January 11, 2008 at 2:59 pm

   Addy, addressing your other question about different environmental footprint calculators, doing a Google search on “carbon footprint calculators” gave 605 THOUSAND results.

   Here are the first few:

   http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

   http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/ (from the Nature Conservancy)

   http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/

   http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9015627&contentId=7029058
   (this is from the oil company named British Petroleum)

   I have not seen a comparison of these methods anywhere, but will keep looking for one. Jim

4. nearlynothingbutnovels

   January 11, 2008 at 3:17 pm

   This method is from the British government:
   http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/environmentandgreenerliving/actonco2/DG_067197
   Jim

5. stevenchen18

   January 11, 2008 at 8:12 pm

   As a Chinese, I am very worried about the environment situation in China. They would have to pay terrible price for what they are doing right.

   Thank you for bring this up.

   Steven Chen

6. nearlynothingbutnovels

   January 11, 2008 at 9:02 pm

   Thanks for the feedback, Steven. It is a shame that this is going on. This kind of thing still goes on in the US, also. For example, there are lead mining towns where the average IQ of children is low and other health problems occur because lead dust is everywhere. The mining companies still deny responsibility and keep trying to put more mines in with the same old technology.

7. nearlynothingbutnovels

   January 11, 2008 at 10:08 pm

   The article about William McDonough’s speech discusses specific sustainability issues in China. See the next most recent post:

   http://greenchemistry.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/the-eco-effective-future-w-mcdonough-and-alwayson-magazine/

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