Monday, January 3, 2011

My Blog Is Carbon Neutral

I am pleased to be able to make the statement in the title to this article and I want to explain how I have done it and how I came to hear about the scheme that enables it.

The first step along the path that brought me to this happy state is that I have joined Seeded Buzz.

The idea behind Seeded Buzz is for the members to plant seeds - which means telling other bloggers about their blog posts and inviting them to continue the conversation on their blogs with a link back to the original post on their blog.

Well I have found a blog post from one of the members that covers a subject that interests me.


Seeded Buzz points out that better the Seed conversation and the more extendable / debatable it is, the more other bloggers will Buzz about it on their blogs and link to the original post.

And as we all know, links are the engine that pumps searches - and these are the lifeblood of the internet.

The seeder profile I found was from Thomas Chasm who blogs about a lot of different categories including Environment, Economy and Health & Fitness. The blog post that interests me is the post he wrote on Green Eyed View about how to make his blog - and indeed any blog - carbon neutral.

The way to do it is to post a badge from a website named Kaufda and write a blog post about their programme. In return they will plant a tree that will offset the 'carbon cost' of this blog.

So that is what I have done.

Now the amount of carbon that a blog creates varies with the number of visitors, but as Kaufa states:

According to a study by Alexander Wissner-Gross, PhD, physicist at Harvard University and environmental activist, an average website causes about 0.02g (0,0008oz.) of carbon dioxide for each visit.

Assuming an average blog gets 15,000 visits a month, it has yearly carbon dioxide emissions of 3,6kg (8lb.). This can mainly be tracked back to the immense energy usage from (mainframe) computers, servers, and their cooling systems.

Red Herring
I think it is a huge red herring to rely on carbon offsetting. This should not be used as a method to enable us to mess about with our environment in any which way we choose. We have a responsibility to keep our own back yard clean and pollution free - and in this case, our back yard is planet Earth.

Still, carbon offset is better than no offset - and if someone is offering to plant a tree, then I say a resounding YES!

Update
I reported to Kaufda the fact that I had made the blog post and was displaying the button.

Here is the email reply:

Hi David, 
thank you so much for participating in our initiative and making your blog carbon neutral! We thank you for your support! 
Here you can find some news about the reforestation: http://www.kaufda.de/umwelt/carbon-neutral/forest-update/
There are still some trees looking for a sponsor. So if you know some people who have a blog or website, pass it on and we'll make their blogs carbon neutral too! 
Best Wishes,
Magdalena
"Make it green"-team

The news link is here.



1 comment:

  1. Hi David - Thanks for making Pixels Ate My Homework carbon neutral. Sometimes we think as individuals that we are helpless when it comes to helping the planet but one person can make a difference - and you did. Keep up the good work.
    Tom
    http://greeneyedview.typepad.com/a-green-eyed-view/

    ReplyDelete

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