Responses to the Impetus

On Nov 17, 2007 12:43 PM, Robert <> wrote:
Dear Marcia,

Thanks very much for the information about the carbon compensation at
ETH, and for the links. I looked a little bit online at the
organizations recommended by the Tufts study, and was quite stunned by
what these show. Others may be well aware of this already, but I wasn't:

1. One economy return flight to DC is equivalent in carbon emissions to
driving a mid-sized car 100 miles per week for a year.

2. The true cost of compensating these emissions is of the order $50-100
depending upon the exact details of how the money is spent.

Given how much many of us are expected to travel in our professional
capacities it would make sense for a progressive institution like the
University of Washington to do something about contributing to this
compensation. I wonder if these emissions are being considered in the
UW's plans to reduce their carbon footprint. I couldn't find anything
definitive about this on the UW website.

Regards

Rob

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On Nov 17, 2007 2:12 PM, Justin <> wrote:
Rob:

Thanks for highlighting the most key points. These numbers gel very
closely with some back of the envelope calculations I did myself several
years ago with respect to air travel. I found that as a VERY rough rule
of thumb, the fuel use per person for air travel on a fair full typical
jet used for domestic travel (e.g. a 737) is approximately equal to the
fuel use of driving the same distance by yourself in a car that gets 30
mpg. The range of deviation across different size planes etc, passenger
loads etc is probably about that of the range across the current
spectrum of passenger cars.

Justin

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On Nov 17, 2007 2:23 PM, Halstead <> wrote:

After awhile, cyclists' minds turn to trivia: estimating your
speed in parsecs/millenia, for example. I never checked it in
the sobriety of leisure, but remember one exercise that
convinced me that the cost of sugar to propel me a mile was
comparable to the cost of gasoline to propel my car that
same mile. Now, I wonder, how much I should charge for the
carbon emission. I'll work on it, next trip to the U.

Cheers,
Halstead

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On Nov 18, 2007 4:26 AM, Chris <> wrote:
Dear Justin,

It's not quite so bad with modern jets, more like 60-80 person-miles
per gallon flying full (or putting two people in that economy car)
according to a Wikipedia fuel efficiency article and a web site from the
Air Transport Action Group. At least, airlines are improving the fuel
economy of planes while tightened CAFE standards for cars and light
trucks languish in Washington.

Chris

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