@edwiebe @alexwild There is a carbon cost to pretty much everything. Yes, taking the bike vs taking an ICE car is obvious. And using a heat pump vs. burning gas for heating is too. But that's it for the easy choices.
Is it better to keep using my new wood pellet central heating or should I tear it out.
Is it better to get strawberries from a local green house or from a Spanish farm?
Should I get my groceries delivered or pick them up at a central store?
And so on...
@georgramer @edwiebe @alexwild It's really tough to answer questions like that – surprisingly often, the obvious choice is wrong, like paper grocery bags etc.
For your specific questions:
* I seriously doubt tearing out your central heating system is a good idea, simply because manufacturing the appliance is so energy-intensive.
* I don't know what a "Spanish farm" is, but if a local grower is *really* close it might be better? but maybe not: "industrial" farming is very efficient: e.g. big trucks are a lot cheaper per strawberry than small trucks, etc.
* I'm pretty sure delivery services are going to involve less driving than you driving to the grocery store: they can load up several orders and drive around to each one. But, if you can walk there that's probably better still.
But on all these questions, some more rigorous analysis would be interesting.
@georgramer @edwiebe @alexwild ah ok – here I'd expect prices to reflect the costs, which are mostly energy: which costs more, transport from Spain or powering the greenhouse? (to oversimplify) Farm subsidies, which are evil for a variety of reasons, might throw this off, though.
@ech @edwiebe @alexwild
Yeah, my guesses would be similar to yours.
re: "Spanish farms" in central Europe Strawberries in spring are either sourced from local, heated greenhouses or from strawberry farms in Spain. I guess it wouldn't be too hard to calculate the carbon footprint of either and the actual "correct" answer might be "Just eat whatever is in season locally" but still... as long as external costs for carbon emissions are not part of pricing, it won't matter.