Taking Measure

As you digest your Christmas overindulgence and gaze upon the coming overindulgence of Monday evening, you must surely be wondering how large your carbon footprint is.

In fact, you've been kept awake at night, your brain spinning furiously in an attempt to calculate how much carbon you personally put into the atmosphere. How much do I contribute to man-made global warming, you ask yourself. Next thing you know it's three in the morning and you haven't slept a wink.

Now, gentle reader, you can easily find out what you're doing to ruin the planet. Step over to Repak's site and enter in your particulars. Your questions will be answered and you can once again sleep peacefully.

Have your utility bills handy because the carbon calculator needs a few details.

After answering a few simple questions, you will quickly learn that your consumption is above the average because you don't live in North Korea, where energy consumption is well under the average. In fact, light pollution in North Korea is non-existent, but then again, it's impossible to have all the lights burning when you don't have electricity. Now there's a model for all of us to follow.

The carbon calculator will then give you handy tips, like telling you to turn down the brightness of your television. Turn off as much as you can, in fact, and then turn off your heat because it uses carbon based products. Then stop driving and start walking because your car is doing untold damage.

Or you can simply turn off your computer, which uses electricity that comes from burning coal, and take a page from the North Koreans. They're not wasting a minute of their lives worrying about how much carbon they exude, and look at how happy they are.