Carbon footprint calculators

Sometimes I wonder how much carbon my personal activities are putting into the atmosphere, and how much difference my lifestyle changes are making.  While I know that every little bit does make a difference and all those little bits add up, it would be nice to have a measure of their effect.  A friend asked if I could find an information source to tell him how much carbon various activities emit so that he could look for matching reductions.  By having some numerical information on your activities and lifestyle, you can also compare how much a particular change will help reduce your carbon footprint if you want to tackle the biggest changes first.  I found many carbon footprint calculators.  Some of them covered just a few topics, and some used my information to calculate a single number at the end.  Some seem a bit overinquisitive, asking questions like the amount of my mortgage payment, and I tend to stay away from these kinds of online websites unless I know a lot about the organization behind the website.  Here are links to some of the carbon footprint calculators:

• EPA’s calculator asks for information such as your zip code, amount you spend on your heating bill, and gas mileage for your car to calculate your current carbon footprint.  It then suggests changes to your lifestyle (such as driving fewer miles) and lets you see how much your carbon footprint changes as a result.   

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/household-carbon-footprint-calculator

• World Wildlife Fund’s calculator asks simple questions about your lifestyle, with carbon footprint information in boxes on the side, and then tells you how your footprint compares with the UK’s target footprint. 

 
https://footprint.wwf.org.uk
 

• This calculator gives both the number of tons of carbon per year and also a comparison of your use with other households in your geographic area. 

 
https://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/calculator
 

• While I was working on this post, I received an email from earth911 on a similar topic.  They list several carbon footprint calculators in their article. 

https://earth911.com/inspire/calculate-carbon-footprint/