According to Heat, George Monbiot's 2006 book about global warming, if everyone in the US cut their emissions by about 90% of what the average person in the US consumes - we could avoid the worst effects of global warming.
Sharon Astyk of Causabon's Book and Miranda from Simplify & Reduce have taken this as a challenge and have put out the call for a Riot for Austerity. For one year participants will keep track of every puff of greenhouse gas that living their life emits - this includes what comes from using gasoline and electricity, producing garbage, buying food and consumer products and more - and work to reduce their emissions to 90% of the average Joe.
Monbiot figured that this level of reduction was impossible without government intervention. But these can-do folks want to prove him wrong. The project introduction says:
It would be a lot easier, though, with government infrastructure changes like better public transportation, more investment in renewable energies and a transfer of subsidies away from stupid things like building new highways and paying corporate agriculture. So if you participate and succeed in any way in this, you should be extremely proud of yourself - you are doing, without help, what they said could not be done.
I decided to join and have learned quite a bit already, finding a warm and lively online community in the process.
Take gasoline - the average American uses 500 gallons per year. A 90% reduction would be to use only 50 gallons per person per year. I figured out my baseline with this category first because I've already been recording all my miles and gas purchases for a year. Turns out I wasn't doing too bad (42% of the average) but then I remembered you have to add your airline miles too. I'm still working on that.
What's brilliant about the 90% project is that it takes the 50 million "simple things you can do to save the planet" concept and makes it specific to you.
I've talked to Prius owners about how they get competitive with each other over their personal gas mileage. Because the cars give you instantaneous mileage numbers on your dashboard, drivers learn what style of driving produces the best results. This gave me an idea - homes should have their electricity, gas and water meters in the kitchen. That way when you're cooking, using the dryer, taking a shower, you can SEE the results right away. Turns out somebody already invented this.
But you don't need a gadget to figure out most of your impact. You just need a pile of old utility bills, a bathroom scale, a bucket. Consider the shower - how many gallons do you use each time? The average is 20 gallons. You can figure yours out by putting a bucket in the shower and collecting the water for one minute. Multiply this by the number of minutes your shower lasts. Now think about taking a shower that's one minute shorter. What would you save over a whole year? Or turning it off while you soap up? Or switching to a low flow showerhead? Or showering with a friend?! Knowing the specific number gives you a way to measure your successes and failures and a way to exercize your ingenuity.
Read the 90% emissions reduction FAQ here. The guidelines here. Join the very friendly and busy Yahoo Group here. There are 248 people on it so far, with several from Southern California. The list got a big boost in participants when No Impact Man posted about it. Participants are living in many different situations - from an apartment in Queens to a ranch in Australia. So the strategies being discussed vary widely. They are old, young, families, singles, people far along the path to sustainable living and people really new to it.
As Miranda posted last week:
It is thrilling to see that so many people are interested in reducing emissions! I really think that community is where this starts. Right now it may be online, but hopefully in the future it can also be next door. We never know who may be affected by how we live or what we choose to do.
And Sharon wrote "I think this is going to be fun - optimizing your life so that you get the most out of the least inputs is one of the most fascinating projects I can imagine. Plus, the world needs a few more good riots, even quiet ones."
