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In his new book, How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything (Greystone Books, $19.95, 2011), Mike Berners-Lee helps define what a carbon footprint is (the best estimate of the complete climate change impact, shown as tons of C02), and, yes, shows how bad bananas are (as well as nearly 100 other foods, products, services and natural events) in terms of their impact on our climate.

Acknowledging that climate change is a major issue, Berners-Lee says in his introduction, “Nearly all of us, including me, have plenty of junk in our lives that contributes nothing at all to the quality of our existence. It’s deep in our culture. Cutting that out makes everyone’s life better, especially our own.” His goal with the book is to help us make strategic decisions in how we live our lives so we can use less carbon in a way that works for each of us.

I love Berners-Lee’s description of what a ton of C02 looks like: “If you filled a couple of standard-sized 60-gallon garden water tanks to the brim with gasoline and set fire to them, about a ton of carbon would be released directly into the atmosphere.” I think that visual will stay with me!

Here are just a few of the nearly 100 items that Berners-Lee compares:

- A cup of tap water: 0.06 g of C02e  (carbon dioxide equivalent)

- A bottle of water, on average: 160 g C02e

- Drying your hands: Zero C02e for drip drying; 3 g C02e for a Dyson Airblade; 10 g C02e for one paper towel; 20 g C02e for a standard air dryer

- Mug of tea or coffee, boiling just enough water for the cup: 23 g C02e

- Large latte 343 g C02e

- A veggie burger: 1 kg C02e. A 4-ounce cheeseburger: 2.5 kg C02e

- A double-writeoff car crash on the highway: 50 tons C02e

- A 405-mile (650-km) round-trip voyage from New York City to Niagara Falls: 120 kg C02e by train; 330 kg C02e by small, efficient car; 500 kg C02e by plane, 1,100 kg C02e by large four-wheel-drive vehicle.

- A wind turbine: 30 tons C02e installed; 500 tons C02e savings over 20 years in use.

- And the banana? 80 g C02e  when imported from the other side of the world. Berners-Lee says this is pretty good, considering the nutritional value a banana offers.

Note that this book is written from a UK perspective, so the actual carbon footprint of things may be a little different here in Canada. If our relative energy use is any indicator, Canadian numbers are likely higher.

Do you find it confusing trying to compare the environmental impact of things?

Concerned about the rising cost of energy? Worried about the climate change and other environmental impacts of using that energy to heat, cool and power your home or your business? Curious about what technologies are our best options for more efficient, less expensive, lower-carbon-footprint energy?

Pollution Probe, an independent Canadian environmental organization, today released a comprehensive primer on Canada’s energy sources and offers detailed explanations of better technologies for our homes and beyond. The primer offers a very thorough look at where our energy currently comes from, showcases plenty of helpful energy options in an easy to understand manner and provides case studies as well.

To read the document, click here to download it from the Pollution Probe site.

Walking around in Toronto’s stunning 32 degree C heat today, I couldn’t help but think that a few things we take for granted now might just become passé in the future, primarily due to energy costs (thinking realistically) but hopefully also in recognition of the effects of climate change.

1. Ice cubes. Sure, we can make ‘em easily in our freezers, but there’s a whole industry out there that creates, packages and ships quantities of ice to restaurants and sells bags of ice to grocery stores, gas stations and beer stores. If electricity prices went up to reflect the true energy cost, the per-cube cost might be prohibitive. Ice cream might fall victim to this too – but we can make our own. Here’s a delish patriotic recipe from Homemakers.

2. Patio heaters. When I was in California recently, just about every patio had a heater, often propane fired, but some were electric. It’s lovely to stay toasty well into the night, but I bet restaurants will forego that evening glow given higher energy costs. But they could bring in a welcome replacement: throw blankets!

3. Glass buildings. Apparently glass buildings are terribly energy intensive to heat and cool (see this article for more). There’s no insulation, so heat easily escapes, but the sun heats them like a greenhouse so they have to be cooled aggressively as well. With this info in mind, I’m concerned about all the glass condos dotting urban landscapes.

4. Standard office attire. I don’t know about where you work, but my office building’s managers try to keep the place the same temperature year round. Maybe it’s so that people in suits are always comfortable. To avoid being hit hard with heating and cooling costs, maybe we all need to wear sweaters in the winter and sandals in the summer.

5. Heated driveways. I know these are becoming more rare, but I still see glistening wet driveways on sub-zero days here in Toronto. I used to live in an apartment building with a steep ramp to its parking garage. The heater was on all winter, lest someone slide down the ramp and through the door.

Do you have any predictions about energy hogs that might go extinct?

So, you say you want a renovation? Well, we all want to live in comfy, efficient spaces so we pay minimal energy costs. And, I’d like to think, we all support reducing our home’s carbon footprint in the process to try to lessen the effects of climate change.

But a major booster to this Canadian pastime, the federal EcoEnergy Retrofit program, has been cancelled. The program offered thousands of dollars in rebates for improving your home’s efficiency. If you’ve started the process by getting an initial audit, you can still complete the program. Otherwise, you’re out of luck. Just like that. Here’s all the government has to say about it. When I tried to submit a feedback form asking them to reconsider, the form spat out an error. I guess I’ll have to write a letter. (Yes, I’m that ticked!)

It’s funny, I was thinking that a post-recession recovery period would be ideal for a program that helps create healthy small businesses and green jobs through demand for contractor services, manufacturing of efficient home-heating systems such as geothermal systems, solar hot-water systems, Energy Star windows and other renovation staples. These are all items that generally cost more up front, but offer much lower operating costs. I was thinking that encouraging Canadians to reduce our dependency on cheap energy would do a great job of preparing us for the higher costs ahead, especially those in lower income groups.

The feds must know something I don’t. (If anyone understands what that is, please fill me in.) But here’s something I do know: Canadians take enormous pride in our homes, and we spend a lot of energy — and money — improving them. So taking away a rebate program as helpful as the EcoEnergy Retrofit audit is like poking us in the eye. And we might remember that when the next election rolls around.

Luckily the provincial programs are still in place. For now. For details on those, click here.

Have you had your audit, or were you planning to?

This Saturday I took part in the Toronto Stewardship Forum, a one-day event put on by the city of Toronto’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation dept. The morning’s keynote speaker was Alanna Mitchell, author of Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis. Through her own story of the aquatic expeditions she joined in order to write the book, Alanna laid out the effects on our oceans — and life on land as well — of burning fossil fuels and the resulting excess of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Alanna described how the global ocean absorbs CO2 and, through a chemical change, becomes more acidic, lowering the pH of the water. (Here’s a more detailed explanation.) Instead of naming this ocean or that ocean, Alanna calls all this water the “global ocean” because, as she says, they’re one connected body of water.

By 2030, Alanna says we could see the Great Barrier Reef disappear as the ocean becomes so acidic it corrodes the living creatures within it. The effect on corals has already been severe. Ocean acidification removes life. Compounding this effect, we have water temperature increases that many creatures can’t adapt to, and falling oxygen levels in mainly coastal areas of the oceans due to nutrient runoff (there are currently 407 dead zones, according to Alanna).

Ocean life is what supports all life on Earth, and ocean acidification, temperature increases and lower oxygen levels are all taking a big toll on that life. “Plankton produce every second breath of oxygen you breathe,” says Alanna.

I hope that, perhaps with additional information from Alanna’s book, you feel you’ll have a good answer to “Who knows if  climate change is a real problem?” or “I don’t like winter anyway!”  Personally, I’m very grateful to Alanna for taking the time to bring the science of ocean acidification to us masses.

This morning I attended a roundtable discussion on allergies (that’s “allergic rhinitis” specifically – the itchy, watery eye, runny nose, sneezy type). Among the many gems of information, Dr. Susan Waserman, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy / Clinical Immunology at McMaster University in Hamilton, had an interesting note about climate change. She said that researchers have found that higher levels of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) in the atmosphere can lead to a boost in pollen production. That means those of us with seasonal allergies will respond more severely than ever. Terrific.

Dr. Waserman notes that, from an allergy standpoint, we have additional reasons to crank down our release of GHGs (primarily carbon dioxide, but methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons also play a part, as noted here). She says that “smollen” – a lovely combination of smog and pollen, plagues people in more urban environments, and can make breathing difficult for allergy sufferers, particularly those with asthma.

The good news, Dr. Waserman says, is we have effective antihistamines (Disclosure: the session was sponsored by Reactine), they’re effective, they don’t make us drowsy and they’re safe to take, even during pregnancy, and we don’t become tolerant to them – they continue to work well over time. Dr. Waserman also prescribes nasal steroids to some patients. A January 2010 survey presented in this morning’s session showed that nearly a third of Canadians will just tough out allergy symptoms, sometimes canceling events or missing work, rather than seeking treatment. If GHG emissions keep going up, no doubt some people will change their minds and look for help!

We can hope that governments make change to reduce our GHG output (although recent commitments are disheartening), but there are things you and I can do to be part of the solution.
- Canadians’ most common GHG output comes from driving gasoline-engine vehicles (yes, what goes in the gas tank puffs out the tailpipe!), so the less we drive the better, and electric cars are coming onto the market hopefully by the end of this year.
- Many of us use oil or gas-fuelled furnaces and other appliances, but we can replace these with more efficient models, or switch to electric versions. My partner and I are researching electric, on-demand water-heating options so we can say goodbye to our gas-powered tank. (For home heating and cooling, heat pumps, such as geothermal systems or air-source heat pumps are a fabulous alternative.)
- Depending on where you live, you may be using electricity that’s generated from burning coal. Most Canadians enjoy electricity from hydro and nuclear sources, but to use green energy switch to a renewable energy provider). I’ve been buying green power for several years now, and I don’t find it costs much more.

Those are some of the big changes we can make. Beyond that, it’s all those annoying little everyday decisions about what we eat and what goods we need, since they take energy to create, transport and sell. I don’t know about you, but I struggle with the line between “need” and “want” on just about a daily basis!

If you’re like me and you’re bothered by allergies (that’d be about 25 per cent of Canadians), the connections between GHGs, pollution and allergies offer just one more great reason to live greener.

With 105 world leaders coming in for the UN Climate Change Summit, which runs from today to Dec. 17 in Denmark, it’d be easy for the conference to have a hefty carbon footprint. It seems those running the COP15 conference are keen to avoid the irony of a global conference, which is aiming to save the earth from catastrophic effects of climate change, producing undue carbon in the process.

Perhaps there’s something to learn from their strategies for running your own green meeting, trade or consumer show or a conference.

- Conference delegates will get a free public transportation pass to use throughout the summit. Apparently the Copenhagen metro system was recently voted the best in the world, making it the most efficient way to travel in terms of both time and carbon. Armoured cars will still be used for world leaders, of course.
- Rather than giving gift bags at the summit, Denmark is using the money they would have spent (approx. $700,000) on a climate scholarship for 10-12 students around the world to complete a 2-year Masters program at a Danish university.
- Tap water will be distributed at the conference; plastic bottles won’t be provided. Sounds like BYORWB (bring your own reuseable water bottle) is the order of the day!
- Over 3,500 hotel rooms reserved for conference visitors have a certificate in sustainable hotel management.
- There is a 55-metre windmill right next to the conference centre for the ultimate in local renewable energy. For the rest of us, perhaps we could purchase power for our events from a renewable energy supplier.
- To top it off, COP15 will offset their C02 emissions from delegate visits, local transportation, the conference centre itself by creating 20 new brickworks facilities in Dhaka, Bangladesh. According to this site, the new technology used will “reduce coal consumption during brick production by 50 percent… and emit an annual 100,000 tonnes less CO2 into the atmosphere than the old kilns.”

To listen to Jan-Christoph Napierski, Head of Sustainability at the conference, describe the challenges in reducing the impact of the event, click here.

Have you taken steps to reduce waste in your meetings and events?

I had a chance to visit Winnipeg over the past few days. It was my first time there, and I was lucky enough to have time to tour around and see some sites. It was unseasonably warm, as evidenced by the Santa Claus parade that ran down bare roads. Kids largely ignored the hot chocolate stations, and some even unzipped their jackets to vent some of their anticipation of seeing the Great Merry One. Like most places in Canada, the weather was on everyone’s minds.

Is this climate change in action? It’s hard to say, of course. I thought the display of polar bears near the Manitoba Legislature was interesting. The dozen or so large concrete polar bears scattered across the lawn are from a CancerCare Manitoba fundraising and awareness-raising event held a few years ago. An artist painted each bear to reflect a theme, many of them showing the Canadian north, the northern lights and Native cultural iconography.

The bear shown here tells a story of the Canadian north — including the oil tanker whimsically painted onto its backside. Was this meant to be a reminder of the threat over our shoulder? Or just a piece of real life in the north?

I don’t know the answer, but I’m glad that those bears, such as symbol of all that’s at stake, are keeping watch over the legislature. Perhaps Manitobans could send one to Ottawa.

Monday’s Global Wake-Up Call was a citizen effort to press politicians to act on C02 reductions at the climate change talks in Copenhagen this December. Here’s a terrific video showing some of the events that went on around the world.

My friend Julia let me know about a “flash mob” she’s organizing this coming Monday as part of a “Global Wake-Up Call” designed to urge politicians to act on climate change. This Monday, September 21, at 12:18 p.m., in locations all around the world, groups of people will converge to show that people want action on climate change, and that we want our politicians to come up with a solid plan during the UN Climate Change Conference on from December 7 to 18.

The idea is we’ll all set our cell phone alarms to 12:18 p.m., so the entire group’s alarms will go off at once. Everyone is encouraged to place calls to our MPs and others who we think could influence action in Copenhagen. The event will last just a few minutes, so it’s not a big time commitment, it’s just a chance to converge with a bunch of people and send a message.

Julia’s event is at the Toronto Sculpture Garden, 115 King St. E. (just east of Church St.). To join her at noon on Monday, click here. She’s even encouraging people to wear suits and carry briefcases to show that “climate change is everybody’s business.” I’m going to take part in the flash mob near the Homemakers offices in North York.

To find an event near you, click here.

Participants are encouraged to take photos and video during the event and send them to others, post them to blogs and otherwise get the message out about the critical nature of the Copenhagen talks. For one take on why the talks are so critical, listen to the “Oceans of Trouble” podcast from CBC’s Quirks and Quarks.