Following the footprints

Carbon footprinting--a topic that I didn't know much about until a few months ago--is getting some serious mainstream attention. Everyone wants to know: just how many greenhouse gas emissions are generated in order to make the products we consume?

Take Apple for example. Want to know how many kilograms of greenhouse gases are emitted from your iPod nano? Check out the environmental performance report that the company posted last month. The MacBook Air itself might weigh less than 2 kg, but by the time it ends up in the recycling depot, 340 kg of greenhouse gases will have been emitted in order to make it, ship it, use it, and discard it.

Apple's not the only one who's started following their carbon footprints. The UK's Carbon Trust would like companies to start labeling products to reveal the footprint of different goods and services. Think of it as a nutritional fact label for the environment.

What else can you learn from carbon footprints? Quite a lot, according to the Wall Street Journal. Tesco learned the recipe for a low-carbon load of laundry (liquid detergent, cold water, and don't touch the clothes dryer); Patagonia found that its largest footprint was the polyester in its jackets; and Aurora Organic Dairy discovered that cows are gassy, gassy beasts.

Following carbon footprints can also help you figure out how to be a low-carbon consumer. For instance, around 70% of the carbon emitted over the life-cycle of a Toyota Prius comes from the fuel used to move it. That means that driving less frequently, more efficiently, or buying a smaller car with even better mileage can make a big difference.

But if you are thinking of trading in your old computer, think again. Since most of a computer's emissions are from the manufacturing of semiconductors, it's best to get as much life out of your PC as possible before retirement. Of course, if you can power it with renewable electricity, all the better.

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Gouda in Kalomo

The sun was setting as we said goodbye, knowing that we had a good 2 hour journey in the dark ahead of us. I wasn’t too concerned. [...] I think I was smiling the whole way.

Though my frustrations about the project still stand, they’ve been tempered by my sense of hope. [...] The cooperatives can still meet their targets. There are people like Tangson and Kennedy who want to see it succeed. So this thing we’re trying to do…there’s a chance it just might work after all.

Thulasy Balasubramaniam, a friend from Calgary, is working with Engineers Without Borders in Zambia. She is assessing the suitability of a market for sorghum--a drought and heat resistant alternative to maize, the staple food crop in Zambia.

Her job hasn't been easy. Heavy rains and flooding damaged the sorghum demonstration crops: farmers have reported losses of 50 to 80% this year. Along the way, Thulasy has struggled with feelings of powerlessness and frustration.

I worked very hard alongside my hosts, trying my best to keep up and realizing all along that not only have my muscles atrophied from under-use but so has my mind. The abundant world in which I was raised has actually limited my ability to conceive of what is possible, of what my body is capable of, of the elegance in simplicity.

There is so much we can do.

At the same time, here is always a kernel of hope in Thulasy's posts. Through patience and guarded optimism, she has been buoyed by examples of success. At the same time, she's uncovered a deeper understanding of life in rural Zambia, and the incredible people she now calls friends. And did you know that they make Gouda in her town of Kalomo?

Whyson, my co-worker, says that when outsiders see images of village life or drive through in roaring white land-cruisers, they say, “Oh, these people are suffering.” Yes, one cannot deny that there is a fair bit of suffering in rural Zambia. But what visitors fail to see, Whyson says, “is that these people are living.”

Thulasy is entering her second year of life in Zambia; I wish her all the best and look forward to hearing more of her stories. Especially if they involve moonbows!

We ran through the spray of the Falls in darkness, chasing moonbows as if they were pixies, trying to touch them with our fingers and toes... We screamed at the top of our lungs, giddy from enchantment (but also ridiculously cold from the Fall’s spray). We marveled at the beautiful circle in the sky as its light fractured into a spectrum of colour, made sparkles of the billowing mist, and all the while, lifted our spirits.

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Getting Twice as Far in the Future

Last October, we released a report: "Factor of 2: Halving the Fuel Consumption of New U.S. Automobiles by 2035". The piece got some attention from Joe White at the Wall Street Journal just a month before the U.S. Energy Bill increased fuel economy standards for the first time in 20 years.

The report details design and sales mix changes that could halve fuel consumption (measured in liters of fuel consumed per 100 kilometers) in the average new vehicle sold in 2035. This translates into a fuel economy of roughly 50 mpg by 2035--a target that is nearly as ambitious as the 35 mpg by 2020 requirement in the Energy Bill.

The report is available on our research group's website. Check it!

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Walking on the beach near Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia last January, I was surprised by a real-life balayeur du desert! I didn't have time to ask him what he was sweeping, or if he was aware that his work was being used by some as a metaphor for the crippling futility of human existence. I imagine he didn't really care all that much.


I also learned that, although its called "the Empty Quarter", Rub' Al-Khali is really quite full of pristine sand and beautiful sunsets. It's not empty at all.

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Math and Gangsters

One of the things on my mind these days is finding a job. A career arc I never considered:

"This what becomes of reformed gangsters: they leave the life to become mathematicians. But Smiley was not one of those studious types who disappeared into hermitage or exile. He was an exhibitionist who slept naked and solved theorems while the glass from the overhead sky-light magnified his derivations and graphs".

From Salvador Plascencia's The People of Paper. Though I'm not considering thuggery or calculus as future careers, the title "exhibitionist mathematician" has a certain ring to it, don't you think?

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Su-Mei Tse's le Balayeurs du Desert. It's tranquil. It's futile. It's a horizon of men sweeping an infinite desert with green brooms. On my way to a meeting, I stopped. The sound of brooms sweeping dust was soothing. They didn't seem to mind. I wished them good luck and turned away.

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Mapping Energy @ MIT

A friend developed a website that shows energy use in buildings on the MIT campus. The graphical interface lets you browse through the years, tracking the evolution of energy use in total energy, electricity, steam, chilled water, or gas.

Can you spot the most energetic building on campus? (you'll have to switch to watts per square meter--it's tiny!)

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What is Synthetic Biology?

If you are still asking yourself this question, or haven't even yet, then let Drew Endy break it down for you, white board style. Just don't give him your credit card number: synthetic biology is a means to an end, but it is also more than you can afford.

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