What's Your Carbon Footprint?

Today's Mercury News had a great (and simple) worksheet that allows you to measure how you are personally contributing to global warming. There are a total of 5 inputs:

• miles driven per year
• gas mileage of your vehicle
  
• average electric usage per month (in KWh)
• average natural gas usage per month (in therms)
• miles flown each year

I used the worksheet and calculated my family's carbon footprint and came up with the following. My family's carbon footprint is 50,156 lbs of CO2 per year-- or 12,539 lbs of CO2/year per person.

The averages provided by the Mercury News are:

• Bay Area: 25,102 lbs of CO2/year
  
• California: 26,301
• Nationwide: 35,967

I don't know if comparing my family's per-individual amortization to the averages provided is fair. However, I included both cars and the family vacations instead of just my personal transportation and travels. Hmm, I wonder if I should purchase CO2 offset credits? (And I'm actually serious) One thing that I have done at home is to replace all my incandescent light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL's).

Anyway, take a look at the Mercury News and their nifty calculator for yourself.