Analysis Assignment from Atmospheric Sciences
Professor Ankur Desai - Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences and Environmental Studies
For this assignment, you will conduct a self-reflection about your own personal carbon footprint and relate it to how proposed climate mitigation policies might affect your own behavior.
Steps:
First, compute your carbon footprint, a measure of your personal fossil fuel based contribution to the addition of CO2 to the atmosphere. You will need to know something about your electric/heating bills, miles you drive, flights you’ve taken, etc…
If you are not sure of a specific answer, make your best guess. You are welcome to try other sites than this one:
https://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/calculator
Compare your footprint to your average for your zip code and for the nation based at:
https://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/maps
Some sites to help you find average energy usage:
https://www.mge.com/customer-service/home/average-use-cost/
https://myaccount.alliantenergy.com/OUCSSPortal/faces/public/cmPropertyBudget
Then, read the following articles (web link articles are online):
- SPM.1 and SPM.2 in IPCC, 2014: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Edenhofer, O., R. Pichs-Madruga, Y. Sokona, E. Farahani, S. Kadner, K. Seyboth, A. Adler, I. Baum, S. Brunner, P. Eickemeier, B. Kriemann, J. Savolainen, S. Schlömer, C. von Stechow, T. Zwickel and J.C. Minx (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_summary-for-policymakers.pdf
- Richard Conniff, “Blue Sky: Thinking: The Political History of Cap and Trade”, Smithsonian Magazine, August 2009 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/air/the-political-history-of-cap-and-trade-34711212/?no-ist=
- Mankiw, N.G., 2007, One Answer to Global Warming: A New Tax, New York Times, 9/16/07 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/business/16view.html
- Planet Money podcast, 2016, Oil #5: Imagine A World Without Oil,http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/08/24/491216303/oil-5-imagine-a-world-without-oil
Using these sources, write a short reflection piece of 1) the nature of your fossil fuel use, 2) economic policy options that would influence that use, and 3) how would you change behavior were those implemented.
Consider the following questions:
- What was your carbon footprint in tons of CO2 equivalent (note that 1000 kg = 1 metric ton). Was your footprint higher than the average for your area or the nation (you may need to do additional research to find these values)? What is your largest source of emissions? What difficulties did you have in estimating the numbers for the surveys? What does that say about the complexity of measuring individual carbon emissions?
- Using the readings above and/or supplementary materials that you find, discuss the nature, merits, and disadvantages to climate change mitigation by reduction of CO2 emissions by carbon tax, cap and trade, offsets, or command and control. Do you think alternatives to fossil fuels will be found fast enough and change the way you live?
- Imagine if one of these carbon emission policies were adopted and it affected your personal finances such that you paid (through taxes or increased prices) an extra $100/ton per CO2 emitted (i.e., costs from oil companies, gasoline, electric utilities, etc… were passed onto you so that your expenses increased as such). How would your behavior change (if at all)? What ways (if any) would you try to reduce your carbon emissions? How about if the costs were $10/ton and $1000/ton? Will your carbon emissions increase in the future? See if you can find the current price of carbon on an existing market and whether that is influencing behavior.
Paper guidelines:
- 2-3 full pages, maximum of 4, exclusive of any figures and bibliography
- Double-spaced, 1” margins, 12-point standard font, number your pages, no title page, your name and title on top of page 1
- In-text citations required and should be in any standard accepted, academic format, and bibliography (does not count toward 2 pages) must include full academic citation (journal name, title and author, page numbers or web link, date of publication and/or access)
Please be sure to note your carbon footprint value and bring that number to class.
