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2.8 Tons
14 years ago
2.8 Tons
In a fair world this number represents your own annual C02 emission limit – a limit necessary to maintain a hospitable climate on this planet. Right now developed nations are a long way off the mark. The average North American is responsible for about 20 tons of C02 emissions per year – seven times the per person limit.
The idea that we should share global carbon emissions is called the “per capita principle.” At its heart is the notion that every person living on the planet equally shares the right to emit greenhouse gases. If all seven billion of us share equal carbon emission rights, then climatologists estimate that 2.8 tons of C02 is the limit that each person can emit if we are to have a good chance at keeping the planet’s mean annual temperature from increasing by more than two degrees Celsius (which in 2009 many G8 leaders, Obama included, agreed we must do).
What will be the result if we fail to achieve this goal over the next nine years? Extinction, probably. According to leading climatologist Hans Joachim Schellnhuber of Germany, if we fail to reduce our per person carbon emissions to 2.8 tons by 2020, the human species stands little chance of survival.
Share this with friends and strangers alike, let’s go viral with this idea.
So do the impossible. Prove people wrong. :)
160 meters (524.9 feet) of adhesive LED strip light have been purchased.
There are 60 led's per meter, and 4 lumen per led. This comes to 38,400 lumen for the entire property.
This 40k worth of lumen, only comes at a cost of 384 watts. Meaning we can light our entire house, 3 times brighter then standard incandescent/florescent lighting, for barely the power consumption of a refrigerator.
For the first year, the lights will be run on industrial grade switch mode power supplies which convert standard house AC to the power required, but after the entire system will be put on solar/battery array, completely removing our lighting requirements from the grid.
The lights are rated at 50,000 hours, or 5 hours a night for the next 30 years. And so, while we will be essentially carbon neutral for the next 29 years in regards to power consumption to maintain light after the sun goes down. It's impossible to really tell what kind of comparison that is to the carbon generated during the design/manufacturer/handling/shipping/warehousing/transportation/disposal of all the items I procured to produce this 'zero carbon footprint' lighting array in the first place.
Granted, the reason we're doing it in the first place, isn't to reduce our carbon emissions, we're doing it because we prefer paying $20 a month in power vs. $180 (yes the difference in my country can be that much considering 400 watts to well over 2,000 watts of consumption in regards to light)
But, that's what it really comes down to in the end, people's wallets - it's what they're most concerned about, the rest of the globe... is too big a thing for any one or even a large group to take into consideration when it comes to climate shift.
Not to mention, everyone everywhere seems to think we're at fault for the 'planet heating up' - yet NO ONE ever looks at the primary reason this planet is warm to begin with.
The sun.
It's getting hotter.