For Immediate Release Contact: Manna Jo Greene, 845-454-7673 x113 Can a Small Regional Group Save the World? Maybe, if enough people use its Carbon Calculator. |  Main Page  |  Theory  |  Download  |  Instructions  |  Case Study  | Poughkeepsie, New York.   It is Earth Day. Do you know—really know—what your environmental impact is? Today Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a regional environmental organization known more for its iconic schoolship and its longtime affiliation with folk singer Pete Seeger than for global climate change, is releasing an environmental assessment tool for the rest of us. It is the Clearwater Carbon Calculator, a pre-programmed spreadsheet available free from the Clearwater website, www.clearwater.org/carbon.html   It is easy to use, and allows individuals, households, and institutions such as businesses and universities to accurately measure their carbon emissions, and then guides them in taking measurable steps to reduce carbon emissions. Using the Clearwater Carbon Calculator, consumers can collect simple data on their consumption of gasoline, electricity, paper, air travel and other products, and know instantly the amount of carbon being released to the environment as CO2 and other pollutants. They can also use this information to reduce carbon emissions. Carbon is an accurate, science-based surrogate for most forms of pollution, since it is a key component of fossil fuels, smokestack emissions, toxic industrial pollutants, sewage, solid wastes, and perhaps most important, of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas thought to be contributing to global climate change. Andre Mele, developer of the Calculator, has reduced his carbon emissions by 30% over the past year, and is planning to reduce them by an additional 30% over the next three years. “The Calculator showed me where my problem areas were, and gave me the numbers. This knowledge allowed me to identify areas where changes were needed. I then went for the low-hanging fruit—the actions that were easiest to take and involved little or no sacrifice. The second tier of actions, those requiring some modest reinvestment and planning, is in the works.” Until now, almost all environmental action has addressed pollution excesses from the supply side—the big producers like auto manufacturers and power generators. The demand side has remained a mystery, a holy grail that until now was thought to be untouchable in free-market societies. For decades environmental regulators, spurred by outraged citizens, have been trying to persuade or force industry to curb its thirst for fossil fuels and the pollutants that inevitably are produced by industrial processes. And for decades industry has been claiming its innocence, invoking the laws of supply and demand. If the consumers didn’t want these products, they have insisted, we wouldn’t be manufacturing them. Until now consumers have had no way of quantifying the pollution caused by their own consumption. Until now, environmentally conscious citizens—and according to most polls that is the vast majority of us—have been forced to obey, and all too often ignore, rhetorical exhortations to reduce, re-use, and recycle, with little sense of how much, how little, or even of what. According to Mele, the Calculator could help bypass a classic environmental paradox known as the Tragedy of the Commons —the problem of taking unilateral action while others continue to consume unsustainably. “The Calculator has enabled me, and the organization I represent, to take concrete steps, using available technologies, that involve little or no sacrifice. Best of all, we can monitor our progress as we go.” Mele also claims that the Calculator is on solid ground in economics theory. “Pollution, in its strictest sense, is a market failure. It thrives in darkness and obscurity. It has been addressed to some extent by government intervention, but politics keep getting in the way. Regulations can be rolled back. The power of consumers, if it can be brought to bear on behalf of the environment, will be truly awesome.” “Efficient free markets depend on informed consumers, and theories of economics hold that consumers will build social good into their consumption patterns—if, and only if, they have the needed information. The Clearwater Carbon Calculator can make our markets more efficient.” “Given the opportunity, consumers will purchase products with the attributes they want. For many of us, those attributes certainly include a healthy and sustainable world. After all, it’s our life-support system.” “The Clearwater Carbon Calculator will help fill the huge information gap in our markets, and gives us the power to meet our obligations as global citizens without involving a political process, such as the Kyoto Accord. It’s not the whole solution, but it’s a big first step.” Additional supporting information is available on this website, including a case-study carbon audit of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. ### Hudson River Sloop Clearwater is a not-for-profit organization with the mission to “preserve and protect the Hudson River and its communities.” Since the launching of the tall ship Clearwater in 1969, it has provided an innovative template for grassroots environmental action through public outreach and environmental education. Over 400,000 schoolchildren have taken an in-depth educational voyage on its deck, under sail. Clearwater was instrumental in the passage of the Clean Water Act, and has many other environmental victories to its credit. |  Main Page  |  Theory  |  Download  |  Instructions  |  Case Study  |