Measuring our carbon footprint
Individuals who want to respond to climate change seriously, need to accurately measure their personal carbon dioxide emissions to help understand how best to reduce their own personal emissions to an acceptable level. There are many web-based sites enabling people to gain a simple and rapid measure of their carbon footprint. Though these take minutes to do, they don’t always enable people to work out accurately how best to reduce personal carbon emissions over time.
Generally it is easier to first work out a household carbon footprint and then adapt this, dividing it by the number of people and adding in other individual factors (such as transport to work). Measure your footprint on a yearly basis so that weather, fuel consumption and holiday patterns are averaged out. Here are some useful sites encouraging a more detailed assessment.
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Useful links
Guardian Mark Lynas guides you through working out your carbon footprint
Carbon rationing An introduction to foot printing
imeasure A useful tool for personal energy use from Oxford University's Environmental Change Inst
The Carbon diet regular tracking of your carbon footprint
Resurgence Carbon calculator
C Level Becoming carbon balanced