The New “Low Carb Diet”
The following article was published in the Sudbury Town Crier today. I am posting it here as well.
By Eric Richard,
We’ve all heard of the fad diets that come and go each year. You have the Atkins, the Zone, and the
On September 18th, the Earth Decade Committee will be teaming up with the Sudbury Valley Trustees to introduce a new type of diet. Unlike other diets that are low fat or low carbohydrate, this diet is called the Low Carbon Diet and its goal is to help individuals shed 5,000 pounds in a single year.
You might think that is a typo. Who could conceivably need to lose 5,000 pounds in a year? Actually, all of us can and, if we did, the world would be a healthier place.
You see, the Low Carbon Diet isn’t about burning calories or losing weight. Instead the Low Carbon Diet focuses on helping you decrease your environmental footprint by reducing your carbon dioxide emissions.
What is the Low Carbon Diet?
Every mile you drive, every kilowatt hour of energy you consume, and every gallon of heating oil you burn results in carbon dioxide being emitted into the air. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which means that it acts as a blanket, keeping heat trapped in the atmosphere and contributing to the overall warming of the planet.
Through all of our daily activities, the average American generates an estimated 40,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and the Low Carbon Diet is about taking steps in our personal lives to help reduce these emissions. Rather than dictating any specific solutions, the Diet leaves it up to each individual to figure out which solutions are best for them.
Individuals just getting started may be able to make progress by simply turning off lights in the house, replacing their light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights, getting their oil heater serviced, or recycling more.
Other individuals may have already done all of those things and may have to work harder for the next set of gains. These folks may have to look at other solutions like finding ways to reduce how much they drive (carpooling, public transportation, biking, etc.), replacing high intensity appliances with EnergyStar appliances, or improving the insulation on their homes.
As with a food diet, the first steps are the easy ones and the later steps get harder and harder. But the most important first step is to make a commitment to change and then work toward that change.
The “good news” is that there is an endless list of things that we can all be doing to help reduce our environmental footprint. Even people who have been actively reducing their emissions for years can always find more things that they can do.
Team-Based System
The Low Carbon Diet is centered on the idea of building teams of individuals who get together on a regular basis and help support each other through their goals.
Each meeting, the members of the group share their experiences. What have they tried? What have their results been? What really works? What is great in theory but just not practical to maintain?
These group meetings help in a couple of ways.
First and foremost, they help people get new ideas for what they can do to help reduce their emissions. One of the greatest assets of any team is the creativity of its members and the meetings provide an opportunity to share their ideas and experiences.
The meetings also help us keep ourselves accountable and increase our odds of success. Many dieticians would tell you that one of the most powerful forces behind any diet is having the individual publicly state their goal to other people and then report on that progress. There is a very strong psychological response toward these public declarations; none of us want to go to that next meeting and say that we didn’t make progress.
How Can You Learn More?
Individuals who are interested in learning more about the Low Carbon Diet and how they can reduce their own environmental footprint should attend the introduction meeting on Tuesday, September 18th 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM at Wolbach Farm on Wolbach Road, Sudbury.
Please register for this event by calling Sudbury Valley Trustees at 978-443-5588. Seating will go to registered individuals first.
This event will introduce the concept of the Low Carbon Diet and help folks get started forming teams. The schedule for follow on meetings will be determined once the teams have been formed.
Individuals who cannot make this meeting but are interested in learning more should contact the Sudbury Earth Decade Committee at lcd-info@sudburyedc.org or visit http://www.empowermentinstitute.net/lcd.
on September 15th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
5000 pounds is a rather unambitious goal for Sudbury residents. It should take about 10 minutes (plus writing a check) to meet.
Sudbury residents can sign up for NStar (indeed, many already are). Starting in January (hopefully!), NStar will offer NStar Green, which allows customers to buy either half or all of their power from windmills, for an additional cost of 1.8c/kwh or 3c/kwh, respectively. Wind is so low carbon that it is essentially zero-carbon.
The average American uses (from memory) 10000 kwh/year. Each kwh produces 1.27 lbs of co2 (again from memory). Thus, a Sudbury resident with average power usage who buys all power from NSTAR green would save nearly 13000 pounds of CO2. Even buying half the power from wind would easily exceed the 5000 pound goal.
http://www.nstaronline.com/residential/customer_information/nstar_green/nstar_green.asp
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/07/25/from_nstar_an_offer_in_the_wind/
(Admittedly this isn’t cheap. But it can easily be payed for by conservation. My family (of 3) started conserving energy about 18 months ago, starting roughly from US averages. We estimate that our reduction in usage of electricity and gasoline alone save an annual 15,000 to 30,000 pounds of CO2 (big uncertainty range because we’re not really sure where we started from). The total cost so far has been about zero (i.e., savings have payed for money spent on new appliances), and going forward our electricity bills should be about $100/month less than they used to be. These savings overwhelm the
on September 15th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
[continued]
less than $7/month that NSTAR’s wind program will cost us. That program will save us another 3-4000 pounds of CO2.)
But, anyway, the point is, anyone able and willing to write a check for a few hundred bucks can zero out their carbon contribution from electricity, saving 5 or more tons of CO2 annually.
on September 16th, 2007 at 12:05 am
So, I think the way the program works is that you would do “cycles” of reduction — each time trying to reduce another 5,000 lbs out of your system.
I am guessing they designed the program with a goal that is readily achievable in the first few cycles so you can build up successes and then it is going to get harder and harder as you get further into it.
At some point you are going to get into the really hard stuff as you try to optimize things even further.