Here’s my Dopplr report for 2008. My flights were the equivalent of 5.4 Hummers, and I travel as fast as a Kangaroo. I can deploy offsets to deal with the first problem. Not sure what can be done about the second.
Update: So I missed the most troubling feature of this initially. According to Dopplr, I have a much higher velocity and much larger carbon footprint than Obama in 2008. Though he spent more nights away from home (then again, he doesn’t live in California).
Dopplr’s visualizations are a first step (and a great use of the AMEE carbon measurement platform). It’s up to us to figure out how we want to proceed from here. Carbon offsets are a good response, certainly much better than empty hand-wringing, but figuring out ways to reduce your travel would be much better—as well as supporting science-based efforts toward systemic economy-wide change.
If you choose to buy carbon offsets, make sure to do your research; there are big quality differences among voluntary carbon offset providers. I’ve been working on Offset Consumer, a website highlighting companies that have been picked in multiple independent listings of top carbon offset providers. It’s a useful first step to understand the market, and get beyond some of the greenwash hype.
I love Dopplr, I just wish more of my friends would use it.
And yes, moving to MA will definitely help with travel logistics. (I managed to do Cambridge to Evanston in just over four hours door-to-door yesterday, which leaves most of the day intact for business as usual.)
My speed was that of a glacier in 2008 and I can’t say I regret it. While I miss the travel, I enjoyed the time at home.
I rarely travel. I telecommute to work and ride my bike to the grocery store. When I do drive, it is in a 1999 SaturnL. I purchase, maybe, four gallons of gas a month. I do that, not because I worry about the environment, but out of pure miserliness.
If you want to assuage your guilty conscience I will sell you my teeny, tiny, carbon footprint for just $18000.00 a year.
I think Dopplr is great for people traveling on business, though I am wary about using it to document personal travel. I stopped using it because amid all of these web applications that encourage extroversion, I wanted to cherish some things that could remain private. Of course, I am contradicting myself- through my Flickr account, one could always track down my whereabouts.