February Temps Were High But at Least My Carbon Footprint for the Month Was Low

Another month, another month of above normal temperatures globally.  And record highs for my home region in NY.

At least it meant that the backup nasty gas furnace in my house did not come on once all month (we heat with a woodstove fired with backyard deadwood, mostly). That’s a first for the thirty winters we have lived in this house. And we still managed to have a pretty good month for cross-country skiing – by making two trips in the Prius to our north woods cabin.

My total carbon tab for the month came to 340 pounds, which is really low for a winter month. The largest part of this was the gasoline we burned making two round trips up north – that was about 200 pounds of CO2. Natural gas (the water heater still runs) added up to 114 pounds CO2. And I wasted 44 pounds of my carbon budget eating beef (part of this was ordering ribs at a restaurant and expecting pork ribs, but ending up with a beef rib).

With a modest carbon footprint for February, I can look forward to having some to spare later in the year when we make summer travel plans.  But I am still more likely to sail someplace interesting than to fly there.