Greencuisine’s Weblog

When you see the satellite image of our Earth at Night (geology.com/articles/satellite-photo-earth-at-night.html), Puerto Rico is definitely the shining light of the Caribbean. The entire island is clearly visible as we burn midnight oil and belch out greenhouse gases. According to the EPA, our tiny speck of an island’s electrical power demand per population density is the 3^rd largest within the US, the 2^nd in the Americas and the 11^th in the world! Our contribution to global warming is blatantly exposed for all to see for we look like a bright hole in the night’s sky. With a barrel of crude oil in the world market at $110. dollars (and a gallon of gas in Germany at $8! …Ay bendito…que nos espera), we are fossil fuel fools and it shows.

To understand where we stand, our Carbon footprint is calculated from the impact we have on the environment from burning fossil fuels (crude oil, natural gas, coal and gasoline) measured in tons of Carbon dioxide (CO²) emissions. Although various greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere by absorbing heat, CO² is the worst so scientists commonly use it to measure global-warming emissions.

A Carbon footprint is also the sum of two parts. Our Primary Carbon Footprint measures the direct emissions of CO² produced by our energy choices and transportation.   In PR, we are mostly dependent on imported crude oil or petroleum (93%) for our electricity and we have over three million cars. Our motor vehicle per capita on the island is 0.74 (the highest in the USA) and our gasoline consumption is more than 1,089,000,000 gallons/year. Just for perspective, this is More than ALL of the gasoline consumed in ALL of the seven Central American countries together!!!! We burn so much fossil fuel, Puerto Rico’s Greenhouse gas emissions are 230% higher than world average and 333% higher than the rest of Latin American and the Caribbean.

To get a more detailed idea of the tons of CO² produced by each of our energy plants on the island, go to www.carma.org, type in Puerto Rico and see. CARMA, standing for Carbon Monitoring in Action, is a non profit organization within the Center for Global Development and has been online since 2007. It reveals the CO² emissions of more than 50,000 power plants and 4,000 power companies in every country on Earth. In Puerto Rico, there are 31 power plants listed including one coal plant (supposedly recognized as one of the cleanest coal-fired plants in the world) and one natural gas plant. Quick math, however, will show that our 2 largest oil burning plants together produce 13% less electricity than this one coal plant, yet the coal plant produces 30% more tons of CO² emissions than ALL other 30 plants put together. Unfortunately, there is really no such thing as clean coal.

Our Secondary Carbon Footprint is a measure of the indirect CO² emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use (including their manufacture and eventual breakdown). An example of lifecycle evaluation is the whole debate between which is more environmentally preferable: paper bags, plastic bags or reusable bags! (But that’s another story).

If our island’s carbon footprint bothers you, like it does me, you have the opportunity to join EARTH HOUR(www.earthhour.org ), a Global movement on March 29, 2008 to make your voice heard. Begun in Sydney, Australia last year, this city turned out its lights for one hour to send a message and unite in the cry for action on global warming. In 2008, however, Earth Hour is spreading around the world. Indeed, their interactive website shows a globe highlighting where (and to what extent) action is taking place all over. I received a link from a US Green Building Council (USGBC) member to sign up and pledge to turn my lights out from 8 PM- 9 PM this Earth Hour so I did and will. So can you, as well as all your friends and everyone you know. You can even track and link how many people you’ve “turned on” to “turn off” on this website. As they say, every single light makes a statement and you’ll be able to really see the difference on a global scale.

Once you’ve experienced Earth Hour, it’s only natural that you follow through with Earth Day on April 22, 2008. The message on the web is no matter what you’re doing for Earth Day 2008, wear BLUE. Then, on April 22nd, make your voice heard again by picking up the phone and calling the U.S. Congress (tel: 202-224-3121) to stop the construction of any new coal-fired plants.  Fifty-nine coal plants were canceled in 2007 (over a third of the 151 planned) because millions of people who just said NO to Coal and YES to renewable energy. Unfortunately, according to the Environmental Defense fund, the US government only spends $1.5 billion a year on renewable energy research (while ExxonMobil earns $1 billion a day). China, however, has committed to invest over $200 billion in renewable energy sources over the next 15 years.

April 1, 2008 is also being touted as Fossil Fool Day. With no sources of renewable energy in Puerto Rico, the joke’s on us.