Chapter 7 – The Future – a Green Planet?
2019 was our first full year with a zero-carbon footprint on our house. Our swimming pool already has a zero-carbon footprint. In 2020, I expect to add more solar panels and to replace our gas-guzzling cars with electric-powered ones. The electric cars will be charged from the additional solar panels so we will then have a zero-carbon footprint on our house and our cars. That will save 75 tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere. Each year. Every year. Forever.
The fab four of insulation, heat pumps, solar panels and triple-glazed windows will have to become the fab five (there was, afterall, a fifth Beatle – George Martin, the Fab Four’s producer) by adding electric cars charged by solar panels.
The fab five work on commercial buildings just as they do on homes, and apply to commercial vehicles as well as to cars. According to the EPA, electricity, transportation, and commercial and residential buildings account for 68% of the carbon footprint of the U.S. In the Paris Climate Agreement the U.S. agreed to cut its carbon emissions to 26-28 percent below the 2005 level by 2025. The U.S. would exceed this cut if half the homes and companies installed the fab five. Every one who installed the fab five would save a lot of money. This is not an altruistic tree-hugging environmental sentimentalism. This is cold, hard cash. By going zero you can save thousands of dollars a year and make a good financial return on your investments.
It is only five years to 2025, so you had better start now.