Slate's Green Challenge: can you manage a 5,000-lb diet?
They say we Americans love a good challenge, so in the face of global warming Slate collaborated with Treehugger to come up with the Slate Green Challenge. The idea is that you take a short quiz which determines your annual carbon footprint and then for the next eight weeks, the nation goes on a carbon diet with the end goal of reducing carbon emissions from individuals by 20 percent. The average for a U.S. citizen is 44,312 lbs. I signed up immediately after reading the press release. It just takes a few minutes out of your busy day to take the initial quiz. After that, you'll be directed towards week 1's topic: transportation. The page offers some tips on saving gas and suggestions for air travel such as purchasing carbon offsets through companies like TerraPass or Native Energy. Make sure to check it out and keep in mind that the first 500 people to complete the challenge will receive a free Slate/Treehugger Green Challenge t-shirt.
[Source: Slate]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
tiranus 5:18PM (10/24/2006)
looks a bit impossible... yawn (pretending to be English)
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Howard kerr 9:23AM (10/25/2006)
A report on BBC NEWS last night (oct 24) said that the "carbon footprint" for a typical citizen of Great Britain was about 5 times that for the typical citizen of India (it's example of a "developing nation"). The carbon footprint of a typical U.S. citizen? 2 and 1/2 times what is is for a citizen of the U.K. or 12 times what it is for a citizen of India. You have to wonder about the costs of a "fast food" lifestyle.
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