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New Weapon Against Warming: "Flatulence Cards" Offset Dog, Human Emissions
Sean Markey
for National Geographic News
March 6, 2007
While global warming is nothing to laugh at, an Australian company is providing some comic relief, selling carbon credits for flatulent pets and people.
So-called carbon emissions, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are greenhouse gases that are thought to be key factors in climate change. These emissions can be offset by purchasing carbon credits, which may be used to fund environmental programs.
For 35 Australian dollars (about 27 U.S. dollars), customers of Sydney-based Easy Being Green can offset a year's worth of carbon emissions linked to their dogs, from trips to the vet to, yes, breaking wind.
Making your cat carbon neutral for a year costs U.S.$6, while U.S.$16 offsets two years of flatulence from that special someone.
The company says it offsets the climate-warming effects of emissions from cars, planes, humans, and pets by installing energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs and water-saving shower heads in houses in New South Wales, Australia (see map of Australia.)
The energy savings reduce the need for electricity, which in Australia is largely generated by carbon-emitting, coal-fired power plants, the company says.
Last year the three-year-old company sold or gave away three million compact fluorescent light bulbs, making it the largest importer of such bulbs in Australia.
In exchange, customers signed over the projected carbon savings to Easy Being Green, which then sold them as carbon emission rights on the New South Wales carbon-trading market.
State law requires electric utilities and other regulated industries to offset their carbon emissions.
Easy Being Green says its programs have saved over 680,000 tons of atmospheric carbon per year. According to its Web site, that is equivalent to taking 150,000 cars off the road.
"Flatulence Cards"
Company spokesperson Murray Hogarth concedes that the "flatulence cards" fall on the "gimmicky" side of the company's otherwise serious product line, which is designed to help consumers and small businesses address greenhouse gas emissions.
Consumers can offset the carbon emissions of their cars (estimated at 8.3 tons each per year, cost: U.S. $118), airline flights (1.7 tons for a three- to five-hour flight, cost: $24), or home energy use and trash (about 12 tons a year, cost: $170).
"We are absolute believers in market solutions" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Hogarth said.
Governments focus on suppliers, he added, but they rarely target individual consumers in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.
"Five percent of the population are really green, and they will do this stuff as almost a moral obligation, and they'll pay more money for it," Hogarth said.
"And 95 percent of the population often just get missed altogether."
Easy Being Green aims to reach that 95 percent by showing consumers how they can save money at home and by using age-old marketing ploys like prize giveaways.
"We're not saying that changing light globes is going to fix the climate-change problems of the world," Hogarth said.
"But it's something that people can do immediately, and it actually has its really good social ecology to it. Because people say, Well, hang on, I can do something, and they start to take some action."
Sean Markey
for National Geographic News
March 6, 2007
While global warming is nothing to laugh at, an Australian company is providing some comic relief, selling carbon credits for flatulent pets and people.
So-called carbon emissions, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are greenhouse gases that are thought to be key factors in climate change. These emissions can be offset by purchasing carbon credits, which may be used to fund environmental programs.
For 35 Australian dollars (about 27 U.S. dollars), customers of Sydney-based Easy Being Green can offset a year's worth of carbon emissions linked to their dogs, from trips to the vet to, yes, breaking wind.
Making your cat carbon neutral for a year costs U.S.$6, while U.S.$16 offsets two years of flatulence from that special someone.
The company says it offsets the climate-warming effects of emissions from cars, planes, humans, and pets by installing energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs and water-saving shower heads in houses in New South Wales, Australia (see map of Australia.)
The energy savings reduce the need for electricity, which in Australia is largely generated by carbon-emitting, coal-fired power plants, the company says.
Last year the three-year-old company sold or gave away three million compact fluorescent light bulbs, making it the largest importer of such bulbs in Australia.
In exchange, customers signed over the projected carbon savings to Easy Being Green, which then sold them as carbon emission rights on the New South Wales carbon-trading market.
State law requires electric utilities and other regulated industries to offset their carbon emissions.
Easy Being Green says its programs have saved over 680,000 tons of atmospheric carbon per year. According to its Web site, that is equivalent to taking 150,000 cars off the road.
"Flatulence Cards"
Company spokesperson Murray Hogarth concedes that the "flatulence cards" fall on the "gimmicky" side of the company's otherwise serious product line, which is designed to help consumers and small businesses address greenhouse gas emissions.
Consumers can offset the carbon emissions of their cars (estimated at 8.3 tons each per year, cost: U.S. $118), airline flights (1.7 tons for a three- to five-hour flight, cost: $24), or home energy use and trash (about 12 tons a year, cost: $170).
"We are absolute believers in market solutions" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Hogarth said.
Governments focus on suppliers, he added, but they rarely target individual consumers in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.
"Five percent of the population are really green, and they will do this stuff as almost a moral obligation, and they'll pay more money for it," Hogarth said.
"And 95 percent of the population often just get missed altogether."
Easy Being Green aims to reach that 95 percent by showing consumers how they can save money at home and by using age-old marketing ploys like prize giveaways.
"We're not saying that changing light globes is going to fix the climate-change problems of the world," Hogarth said.
"But it's something that people can do immediately, and it actually has its really good social ecology to it. Because people say, Well, hang on, I can do something, and they start to take some action."
National Geographic