The Story of Upfront Carbon - Lloyd Alter

The Story of Upfront Carbon

How a Life of Just Enough Offers a Way Out of the Climate Crisis

(Autor)

Buch | Softcover
192 Seiten
2024
New Society Publishers (Verlag)
978-0-86571-992-7 (ISBN)
21,15 inkl. MwSt
We must cut carbon emissions to halt climate change. But they aren't just produced by driving a car or heating a home. Upfront carbon – all emissions involved in manufacturing an item – can dwarf operating emissions, which is why when you look at the world through the lens of upfront carbon, everything changes.
When you look at the world through the lens of upfront carbon, everything changes


The astonishing upfront carbon of everyday objects from coffee cups to heat pumps, and why electric bikes, not electric cars, are the answer.


Think that buying an electric car or switching to a heat pump is going to save the planet? Think again.


"Upfront carbon" refers to all emissions involved in making your car, your home, or any other item. These invisible embodied carbon emissions matter a lot. As we weed out fossils fuels and incorporate more renewables into our energy supply, upfront carbon becomes increasingly dominant compared to operating emissions, yet it is often ignored.


By focusing on consumption rather than production, The Story of Upfront Carbon covers:




Why we are fixated on energy efficiency, not carbon, and why this needs to change
Why carbon calculations are so fiendishly difficult
How the simple idea of sufficiency for individuals and whole economies is a powerful strategy to avert looming climate catastrophe
How big-picture thinking and a systemic approach to production can help guide the transition to degrowth and an equitable, zero-carbon society.


Leavened with wit and packed with concrete strategies for minimizing the ecological footprint of transportation, agriculture, consumer goods, the built environment, and more, this highly readable and accessible guide is required reading for a world on the brink.

Lloyd Alter is a writer, public speaker, architect, inventor, and Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Design at Toronto Metropolitan University. He has published many thousands of articles on TreeHugger where he was Design Editor, and on such diverse platforms as Planet Green, HuffPo, The Guardian, Corporate Knights Magazine, and Azure Magazine. A former builder of prefab housing and a tiny-house pioneer, Lloyd is a passionate advocate of Radical Sufficiency – the belief that we use too much space, too much land, too much food, too much fuel, and too much money, and that the key to sustainability is to simply use less. He is the author of Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle. Lloyd lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Acknowledgments


1. The Lens of Upfront Carbon

What Are Upfront Carbon Emissions and Why Are They Important?

Why We Are Fixated on Energy, Not Carbon

Carbon Takes Command

The IPCC Does Not Say We're Doomed

OK Doomer

The Building Industry and Upfront Carbon

The Carbon Footprint of Everything

The Unbearable Heaviness of Carbon

Transparency from Shoes to Motorcycles

The Future We Want: Supply vs Demand

Dematerialization and Degrowth

Enjoy the Ride with Demand-Side Mitigation

Why Sufficiency Is the Solution


2. Strategies for Sufficiency

Materiality: Build Out of Sunshine

Ephemerality

Frugality

Simplicity

Flexibility

Circularity

Universality

Resiliency

Satiety or Enoughness

Electricity

Intermittency

Operating Efficiency

Design Efficiency

Inequality, Inequity, and Justice


3. Stuff

The Single-Use Coffee Cup

From the Two-by-Four to Mass Timber to a Block of Flats

The Block of Flats

The Folly of Foam Insulation

The Heat Pump

The Puffer Jacket

The Hamburger

The Car

The E-Cargo Bike


4. Everything Connects

A Prosperous Ascent


Conclusion

Appendix A: Cheat Sheet: A Short Guide to Sufficiency


Notes

Index

About the Author

About New Society Publishers

Erscheinungsdatum
Zusatzinfo 10 Halftones, black and white
Verlagsort Gabriola Island
Sprache englisch
Maße 152 x 229 mm
Gewicht 304 g
Themenwelt Sachbuch/Ratgeber Freizeit / Hobby Heimwerken / Do it yourself
Sachbuch/Ratgeber Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie
Wirtschaft Volkswirtschaftslehre
ISBN-10 0-86571-992-6 / 0865719926
ISBN-13 978-0-86571-992-7 / 9780865719927
Zustand Neuware
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