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Carbon Footprint


keehotee

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Apologies in advance - I got bored at work....... :)

 

I got thinking about how environmentally friendly (or harmful) caching was, and decided to rough out a geo-carbon-footprint formula.

I've had to make a few assumptions - every cacher drives a car between 1.4 and 2 litres, all mainland UK caches are equally spaced, this totally neglects long-walk-multiple-find days, and all finds are on the British mainland,.....

 

Geo-footprint = f/y * 0.266 (* is multiply :) )

 

where f= your total finds, y= time caching, in years, and 0.266 is a constant based on the emissions from an average car, an estimate of the total caches in the UK, and the average distance between caches.

 

I get a figure of 46.284 ---- that's over 46kg of carbon, on average, for every year I've been caching. :P:D

 

How bad is your geo-footprint???

Edited by keehotee
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This, of course, presumes that you use a car when caching... Most of my finds are done on my own, and as I don't drive, are either on foot, or public transport... :P But I'd be interested in figuring out a way of working that out... :)

 

Your eco-friendly-public-transport-biased footprint = f/y * 0.1

 

The constant this time based on 10 times more people on the bus :) .... but 2.5 times the emissions :D with an extra element because the bus runs all day regardless of whether there's anybody on it..... :)

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This, of course, presumes that you use a car when caching... Most of my finds are done on my own, and as I don't drive, are either on foot, or public transport... :P But I'd be interested in figuring out a way of working that out... :)

 

Your eco-friendly-public-transport-biased footprint = f/y * 0.1

 

The constant this time based on 10 times more people on the bus :) .... but 2.5 times the emissions :D with an extra element because the bus runs all day regardless of whether there's anybody on it..... :)

 

I've got 36.245 but in my defence I would say:

 

Quite a lot have been done on a pushbike (what's the footprint for that I wonder?)

Quite a lot have been done when I had to be somewhere for another reason and just picked up the cache while in the area.

Quite a lot have been done by train + foot/bike.

I did one armchair cache which meant I didn't even have to leave the house.

Edited by MartyBartfast
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Apologies in advance - I got bored at work....... :)

 

I got thinking about how environmentally friendly (or harmful) caching was, and decided to rough out a geo-carbon-footprint formula.

I've had to make a few assumptions - every cacher drives a car between 1.4 and 2 litres, all mainland UK caches are equally spaced, this totally neglects long-walk-multiple-find days, and all finds are on the British mainland,.....

 

Geo-footprint = f/y * 0.266 (* is multiply :) )

 

where f= your total finds, y= time caching, in years, and 0.266 is a constant based on the emissions from an average car, an estimate of the total caches in the UK, and the average distance between caches.

 

I get a figure of 46.284 ---- that's over 46kg of carbon, on average, for every year I've been caching. :P:D

 

How bad is your geo-footprint???

 

I personally try to make my carbon footprint as large as humanly possible by driving a 12 cylinder pickup and leaving it running whenever I get to to find a cache. I lock the doors of course......

And,, I only go for caches at least 100+ miles away.

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75kg. But I don't care. :)

 

Mine came out at 21.9184kg.. But I am sure the calc is wrong.... I have a petrol turbo car, and it definitely aint economic to drive and the rfl is mentally expensive!!! I reckon my figure should be close to infinity. :D

 

I am also a member of the "I don't care club" !!!!!

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Hi Keehotee,

 

I think you are making a good point, and it's something that concerns me. It's about striking a balance - no-one wants to give up all leisure pursuits that create a large carbon footprint, but at the same time (I think) it's good to try to minimise the impact of geocaching on the environment.

 

For me the balance is about how long it takes to get to an area with caches by car/bus, compared with how long I am actually out "in the field" hunting around. My conscience feels better if I've spent at least as much time walking in between caches as the time it took to drive there and back.

That of course rules out purely dash'n'cache runs in the car, unless they are on the way home...

 

Shameless plug: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...d3-8ac03aab3f27

Edited by qichina
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144.7kg :laughing:

 

 

I would say I do find a lot when working so very little direct CO2 was created as I was there anyway, but we did recently fly to America so probably created a lot, lot more than the savings made when working!

 

 

Can someone please put more caches near my home so I can save the world we have only got four unfound within 10 miles of home ;)

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75kg. But I don't care. :laughing:

 

Mine came out at 21.9184kg.. But I am sure the calc is wrong.... I have a petrol turbo car, and it definitely aint economic to drive and the rfl is mentally expensive!!! I reckon my figure should be close to infinity. ;)

 

I am also a member of the "I don't care club" !!!!!

 

OH FEK!

 

I just did the calculation for my car and the 14,000 miles I have done in it in the past 15 months.....

4.85 TONNES of CO2!!!

 

So, it looks like global warming is down to me alone.... ;)

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Hi Keehotee,

 

I think you are making a good point, and it's something that concerns me. It's about striking a balance - no-one wants to give up all leisure pursuits that create a large carbon footprint, but at the same time (I think) it's good to try to minimise the impact of geocaching on the environment.

 

For me the balance is about how long it takes to get to an area with caches by car/bus, compared with how long I am actually out "in the field" hunting around. My conscience feels better if I've spent at least as much time walking in between caches as the time it took to drive there and back.

That of course rules out purely dash'n'cache runs in the car, unless they are on the way home...

 

Shameless plug: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...d3-8ac03aab3f27

 

I think it's an amusing point, rather than a good one. What difference does it make in the face of all the industrial pollution throughout the world? What is it they say? China's commissioning 2 coal-fired power stations a week.

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I think it's an amusing point, rather than a good one. What difference does it make in the face of all the industrial pollution throughout the world? What is it they say? China's commissioning 2 coal-fired power stations a week.

 

It's true that emerging economies in China and India are adding to the problem the west ahas already created. However, a lot here think CITO caching is worthwhile, even though there are piles of litter and fly-tipping all over the place.

 

There's a good article in the NY Times that discusses the "Why bother?" attitude. :

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine...ede-t.html?_r=1

 

It's more about a sense of personal responsibility - so just because the neighbour throws his rubbish all over the street, doesn't mean it's ok for you to do as well!

 

Vaclav Havel has talked about cultivating in people "a new sense of responsibility for the world, an ability to conduct themselves as if they were to live on this earth forever, and to be held answerable for its condition one day".

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I think it's an amusing point, rather than a good one. What difference does it make in the face of all the industrial pollution throughout the world? What is it they say? China's commissioning 2 coal-fired power stations a week.

 

It's true that emerging economies in China and India are adding to the problem the west ahas already created. However, a lot here think CITO caching is worthwhile, even though there are piles of litter and fly-tipping all over the place.

 

There's a good article in the NY Times that discusses the "Why bother?" attitude. :

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine...ede-t.html?_r=1

 

It's more about a sense of personal responsibility - so just because the neighbour throws his rubbish all over the street, doesn't mean it's ok for you to do as well!

 

Vaclav Havel has talked about cultivating in people "a new sense of responsibility for the world, an ability to conduct themselves as if they were to live on this earth forever, and to be held answerable for its condition one day".

 

CITO is totally different. You can make a difference with that - I have attended several CITO events and I'll carry a bag through the woods to clear up as I go. You can see the difference that makes, but the gaseous environmental hype that the government subjects us to is a different matter.

 

It would be better to reduce the emission of pollutants, of course I agree with that, but when compared with the global output of cr.ap, an individual may as well just **** into the wind.

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:laughing::laughing: When Lord and Lady Sonatella leave their residence (Forkham Hall), Lady Sonatella works within walking distance. Lord Sonatella rides his bike to work. We have taken steps not fly for the last three years and when we do drive in the city during the week we only take a very small car or walk. During the weekend we take Clive Bongo out and go caching. We tend to plot our route do as many caches as possible on foot. Not sure what our carbon footprint is as I am far to dense to work it out lol. We just try to do our best. It is a very interesting subject and has got us pondering. Edited by sonatellas
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