The naked environmentalist

I spotted somebody the other day said they still wear black socks on workdays. As usual my mind wandered – he hadn’t mentioned any other clothes – did he still wear them?

Switch to another conversation – about how waste energy from a computer can heat a house.

Move forward to a conversation about setting personal environmental goals. I mentioned the black socks guy and joked I had not changed clothes since lockdown (JOKE!!!). I just left my clothes on until they wore out – it reduced my environmental footprint.

Okay, a joke. But it got me thinking a bit more about carbon emissions. I remember a friend being proud that they used candles on world environment day instead of electric lights. It can be hard to work out the carbon footprint of a lightbulb, but it would need to be pretty massive to be worse than a candle (or rather enough candles to light a room).

Maybe a good example is the modern electric bike. What releases more carbon – a bike co-powered by a person and electricity or a bike powered by a person?

Choosing to use manual power rather than a modern alternative is not always a way to reduce carbon – the human engine is a carbon emitting device (and sometimes less environmentally friendly gases). The efficiency of a human body is not amazing if we only look at kinetic energy production.

There are some interesting calculations around, seeĀ MPG of a Human by Tom Murphy. The crucial issue seems to be around things like the energy of food production.

The inference is that either energy efficient food production or a thoroughly modern energy efficient lifestyle are more beneficial than many of the middle options. Being lukewarm seems to be the option to avoid.

This entry was posted in COVID. Bookmark the permalink.