EcoDharma Doula

Messages from the Edge

April 2024

As your EcoDharma Doula, for the next 12 months, I will offer you a monthly contemplation on what is commonly called ‘Getting to Zero.’ Science tells us we have 25 years to reduce our emissions to Zero. We are looking at a carbon reduction diet, which begins by looking at the big picture.

Emily’s late father, Charles David Keeling, and now her brother, Ralph Keeling, have recorded the precise daily concentration of atmospheric CO2 in the northern hemisphere since 1958. The steadily rising saw- toothed graph is known as the Keeling Curve. Associated with this data, Dr. Seuss (not that Doctor Suess) proved that the atmospheric carbon dioxide was coming from burning fossil fuels through isotope analysis: it turns out the carbon from fossil fuels, which upon incomplete combustion becomes CO2, contains an identifiable isotope of carbon, allowing the differentiation of where the CO2 came from. Anecdotally, the saw-toothed data reflects the Earth’s respiration through summer with high

photosynthesis, causing low annual concentrations, and winter with low photosynthesis, causing high yearly concentrations.

The big picture is, therefore, that we are increasing the concentration of CO2 by burning fossil fuels. So, we can create a Carbon equation:

(consumption) – (production) = Net CO2
Let us breakdown the consumption part of the equation, all the things that use fossil fuels:

(Heating + Cooling + cooking + driving +refrigeration + embodied energy + heating water + utilities + gardening)

And, for production, we concentrate on energy produced without burning carbon: (Clean Energy Produced or Offset)

And we wish to turn the right side to Zero by 2050 or:

(Heating + Cooling + cooking + driving +refrigeration + embodied energy + heating water + utilities + gardening) – (Clean Energy we Produce or Offset) = (Everything we Use)

And we need to turn (Everything we use) to zero: (Everything we use) = 0 CO2

I will need 12 months to explain this, and it will take us the next 25 years to accomplish.

Our consumption is high, our clean energy production is low, and our CO2 levels are high. By lowering our consumption and increasing our Clean Energy production, we can reduce our CO2 to zero. What is it like to learn to walk the talk? Please stay tuned.