Nature Journal 10

At the end of the documentary “Before the Flood”, DiCaprio mentioned a way for viewers to measure and understand their carbon emissions better through a survey at carbotax.org. I took this survey, and below are my responses to the questions. I based broad questions on my life with my family in Indiana, but personal questions I answered based on my life at TCU.

1.     I was prompted to input my zip code. I had not considered how the state I live in determines my individual emissions level. I now have a better understanding of the importance of voting in government officials who will take action on these issues. After I put in my zip code for my town in Indiana, my score immediately went up and above the national average.

2.     I based my score on my family and our home in Indiana, not on my life at university.

3.     After watching “Before the Flood” I have been more aware of the products I buy and if they contain palm oil. This has been challenging because palm oil can be written as a variety of different ingredients, so I have a hard time spotting it.

4.     I’m a vegetarian so the next few questions were easy answers.

5.     See four.

6.     See four.

7.     I don’t drink cow milk and have adopted substitutes like almond and oat milk. Despite this, I still consume the average amount of dairy and eggs.

8.     Since I live on campus and eat at the dining halls, the only food I personally waste is what is left uneaten on my plate. I rarely take more than I can consume so I don’t see the waste.

9.     This is a hard question. While I try to sort my waste, I know that TCU is single stream and there is little recycling done with the waste on campus.

10.  I answered this based on my family’s waste production.

11.  Indiana has a temperate climate with fair amounts of rain, so we don’t have to irrigate our lawn or plants often.

12.  We live in a single-family home.

13.  Our home is above average in size.

14.  Although our home is not well insulated, we don’t adjust the temperature often. If it is cold outside, we use blankets instead of turning on the heat.

15.  We turn it down to save money.

16.  We hardly use AC in the summer.

17.  We have a side-by-side fridge.

18.  We recently put my grandmother’s old refrigerator in the basement.

19.  I believe my dad switched out all of the old bulbs a few years ago and replaced them with LEDs. I didn’t understand why until now.

20.  While we have a TV, it is rarely on. If we want to watch movies or TV, we usually do so on our personal computers because we like to use streaming services instead of cable.

21.  We don’t use any types of renewable power.

22.  My dad built our house in the late 1990s.

23.  We don’t own a second home.

24.  I don’t shop often because I don’t have much of a disposable income as a student.

25.  I own an older vehicle.

26.  I don’t spend much time in the car since I live on campus. I added up all of the commitments I attend off campus throughout the week and divided by 7. This gave me an average of 20 minutes a day.

27.  I spend all of my time driving in my compact car.

28.  About half of the time I am driving, I am carpooling with others.

29.  This was a hard number for me to come up with because I spent a majority of this year traveling.

30.  I never travel by boat.

31.  This is where my score skyrockets. I have taken many flights this year: 8 quick commuter trips, 2 short haul trips, and 4 long haul trips. My score jumped from 5.1 to 13 after I put the numbers in.

32.  I only fly economy.

33.  I have never flown on a private jet.

My final score was 13.0 tonnes climate pollution, 1.3x the national average. I love traveling, but I didn’t realize scope of the effect flying has on carbon emissions and the climate. Now that I understand this, I plan to start offsetting my contributions to the climate impact every time I fly.