Fall 2007: Volume 28, Number 4 - Missouri Prairie Foundation

David Tilmanto absorb the waste. This leads to an increasein gases in the atmosphere (greenhouse gases),most notably carbon dioxide, but also methaneand nitrous oxide. Those gases, along with watervapor and ozone, trap heat and warm the planetthrough the so-called Greenhouse Effect, whichis not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, withoutthe natural insulation of the greenhouse gases,the Earth would not be suitable for plant andanimal life. Over time, however, the increasingconcentration of greenhouse gases has trappedmore and more heat, which has led to what wenow call climate change or global warming.These changes include increased melting of icecaps and glaciers, rising seaInstead of growingcorn or soybeansfor biofuels on ourmost fertile soil,we can producebioenergy bygrowing prairieplants on marginalsoils withoutirrigation andwithout fertilizeror pesticidesthat can pollutegroundwater. Wedo not have tochoose betweenfood and energy.levels and huge potentialchanges in our currentrainfall amounts and windpatterns.Measuring Our Impact:Carbon Footprints andCarbon CalculatorsAs humans attempt tocome to grips with the partwe are playing in changingthe Earth’s climate, theconcept of the carbonfootprint has emerged.The idea is that all fuelconsumptiveactivities,from driving a car toheating and poweringa home to buying andconsuming productsproduced with energy, contribute carbon tothe atmosphere. Since most people do not havethe time or resources to do a personal carboncalculation, averages for American individualsand households have been developed. There area number of carbon calculators on the Internetwhere individual or family information, such astype of car, number of miles driven, size of home,cost of energy bills and number of miles flowncan be entered to produce a rough estimatedvalue of the amount of tons of carbon you oryour family are adding to the global total. Thatis your carbon footprint. The two most widelyaccepted carbon calculators are those run byEnvironmental Defense and Carbonfund.org.The best things anyone can do for the climateare to reduce one’s carbon footprint through drivingless, using less energy or buying less stuff. Inalmost all cases, those changes will save moneytoo. The benefits of recycling, carpooling andproper insulation have been touted for decades.A current positive trend is the use of compactfluorescent light bulbs. Replacing drafty windowsor inefficient appliances with EnergyStar productscan also make a big difference. Even regularlychecking your car’s air filter and tire pressure tomaximize fuel efficiency can have an impact. Atsome point, however, you will have reduced yourcarbon footprint to a point where it becomeseither too costly or too inconvenient to go further.At that point, the slogan of Carbonfund.orgcomes into play: Reduce What You Can, OffsetWhat You Can’t.Carbon Offsets and CreditsThe concept of carbon credits came into beingin late 1997 with the development of the KyotoProtocol, named for the Japanese city in whichinternational negotiations were held. A successfulmodel for carbon credits came from the U.S.program begun in the 1980s to reduce acid rain,where companies that produce an excess of sulfurdioxide and nitrogen oxides trade credits withthose who do a better job of reducing contaminants.That trading system was localized, sincepollutants from one specific location show up asacid rain in another specific location. The idea isthe same with carbon credits except on a globalscale, because all carbon dioxide emissions affectthe global climate equally. Each industrializednation is given an annual carbon emissions cap itmust meet, and nations that produce more thantheir cap must trade or purchase credits fromthose who are below their cap. All EuropeanUnion (EU) nations have ratified the Kyoto protocoland have developed a complicated carbontrading system called the Emissions Trading