Your carbon footprint in Hawaii

[Wao nahele wahine]

"Have we ever done a poll here on Punaweb? I wonder how many of us are off grid?"

The question above from RandomQ interested me also.

I believe we all have ways that we have reduced or plan to reduce our carbon footprint.

Anyone care to share any of the following:

Are you on or off grid?

Ways you have reduced your footprint? (i.e. Drive less? Carpool? Vehicle type? battery or gas operated tools?)

[ironyak]

Never seen a poll, but we've had this discussion across several threads and at least as many years. But sure, can help skew the results.

Off-grid, personally drive once a week to town, sometimes get that down to once a month (40 mpg internal combustion - drive it till the EROEI makes sense to replace), one inter-island plane flight in last 7ish years (medical), most tools are hand tools (machete, branch cutters, axes and mauls, 'o'o bars, shovels, etc), power tools like drills, circular saws, breaker, etc are electric via solar, goats as hedgers and mowers / hand clear jungle paths as needed (embrace the verdant - why live in Hawai'i only to burn fossil fuels to try to keeping making it look like Illinois aka r/fucklawns), plant veg and trees (try to get some of every day's calories from the yard), buy used tech and clothing whenever possible (often free at Redemption), minimize/avoid meat - especially beef and dairy (worst emissions per gram of protein).

Not quite Chitta level of attainment (rest in peace), but along a similar trajectory. Be interested to see others' creative approaches to the challenge of existing in a fossil-fueled civilization while reducing one's participation in perpetuating the related harms.

Oh, and no AI - can always draw your own pictures, or look at the literal billions that already exist, and read yourself a book - they're free at the local library and via Libby.

[Wao nahele wahine]

Well, Ironyak, we have some things in common:

Offgrid, weekly trip to town, electric power tools via solar, many hand tools, no red meat.

Town trips can also revolve around a medical appointment in Hilo. We let our neighbors bring their horses and donkey over to graze. Plenty of fruit trees and a vegetable garden, eggs from our chickens and a lot of stored honey from when we had bee hives on the property. We do our best to fix every broken appliance or vehicle ourselves. It also helps that we have welding equipment. As for books, my family shares them through Kindle. Clothing is kept for years until it is rags.

All of my flights for the past 10 years have been for work. Kane hasn't been off island for over 10 years.

We rat proofed our stove since the last one became a rat's nesting place.

Appreciate the links.

[Durian Fiend]

Someone has got be the energy hog in the group and I guess it's me. I have had a 20th century pickup and a '90 4runner on island for almost 25 years. They don't see a lot of miles, probably total less than 3K a year.
I use a gas brush hog and mower to mow my orchard at the most a handful of times a year. Battery power tools, no generator. I fly out of the state at least a couple times a year, but it's standby only so I am not creating any demand for seats. I use propane for cooking and hot water, otherwise off grid. No meat here either. Unfortunately I don't care for pork.

[randomq]

Off-grid (solar, catchment, septic) except my Internet is via wireless, and I use propane for hot water and dryer currently.  Hope to incorporate a solar hot water heater at some point.

I mostly work remote now and consolidate trips when I go into town.  Hybrid vehicle.  Battery operated tools, except I have an older gas weed wacker as a backup, and a generator I rarely use.

I aspire to have a solar/battery setup as large as Wao nahele kane's some day, or one of those self-contained atomic batteries that provides power for 40 years.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

energy hog in the group 

Old is good.  It’s been manufactured, it works, probably uses less total resources to keep it rather than buy a replacement.  I’m sure there’s a calculator somewhere that estimates how much total energy is used new vs old, if you include manufacturing and replacement energy costs. I mostly use everything until it stops working.  My previous phone had a generous amount of clear epoxy on parts of the screen, but at some point there was too much epoxy, and clear isn’t really clear, is it?

[HiloJulie]

Still a lifelong energy hog, but..... Same collector, charge controllers and battery capacity and type as what Kane had mentioned although we went with a 12kW 220-volt pure sine wave inverter to handle 220V electric stove and 60-gallon 220V water heater (on timer), 220V hybrid car charger (charging only during daylight) washer and 220V electric dryer and master bedroom A/C (used at night, if needed for sleeping only). Running two full sized refers and 2 large chest freezers.

Still have HECO power, as back up, however, if ever needed (have not needed for last 1yr and 1/2 or so) we only manually switch over to HECO to handle the load of the house at the time and would not use grid power to recharge batteries. Can also hook up a generator if ever needed but have not made that investment. Solar system as discussed runs main house and small Ohana house and more or less only use propane now for outdoor BBQ grill and a small Paloma style hot water heater for an outdoor shower hookup as well as gas dryer and range in the Ohana house when occupied by family or visiting guests.

All power tools have been battery operated and solar charged for years. Hybrid car - primarily used for short to Hilo and back runs and recharged on solar. Still have a 2001 Ford Escape and 2012 Ford F150 - both kept in pristine shape and well maintained but only used when necessary. All runs anywhere have been scheduled and planned in advance.

Have now replaced all commonly used yard tools with Stihl battery operated products that all use the same battery. In the process of selecting a battery-operated lawn tractor to replace old John Deer hopefully by end of year.

Just completed a 40' X40' "greenhouse" for what will be a massive vegetable garden. 

Not going to lie, but, while both my husband and I have significantly reduced eating meats since retirement, still eat some meat and, when required will fly off island for whatever reasons we deem necessary.

[ironyak]

Wao nahele wahine Well, Ironyak, we have some things in common: Offgrid, weekly trip to town, electric power tools via solar, many hand tools, no red meat.
Well, no offense, much of this is all just Puna 101 stuff, as most of all us have some combination of solar, EV, garden/livestock/permaculture, crunchy granola, DIY going on. It's only really noteworthy in contrast to the conventional mainland or Honolulu lifestyle. Out of curiosity, what are the neighbor's donkeys kept for - animal labor, companion animals, grass maintenance, etc?

All of my flights for the past 10 years have been for work.
The issue is that the physics of atmospheric warming don't care if we fly for work, or medical, or a weekend fling in Las Vegas, on stand-by or pre-booked. The physics are only determined by how much greenhouse gases are released in the process (roughly 1.4 metric tons eCO2 HNL to the West Coast, round trip - that's 1.4 million grams so the same as generating 1.4 million AI images by your earlier calculations - BTW, care the share your source for that info as other sources put higher values on the results?)

Durian Fiend - Someone has got be the energy hog in the group and I guess it's me
Don't worry - it's the the world’s wealthiest 10% that caused two thirds of global warming since 1990. Of course that global 10% includes everyone in the U.S. with an annual income of over ~$40,000 in 2022 dollars so you, and most of us, have plenty of company as energy hogs on the global scale.

We don't all have to move to Nepal, but may be better if we lived like the average Nepalese (0.5 tons CO2 annually per person average versus 13.6 tons CO2 annually per person average in the US).

Edge - Old is good.  It’s been manufactured, it works, probably uses less total resources to keep it rather than buy a replacement.
Yeah, the embodied energy problem - skipping on finding the links again, but the total energy to manufacture like 200 cars is the same that it took to build the Great Pyramid at Giza. So every parking lot at a big box store in Hilo has the same energy invested into it as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and that's before all those cars go moving about on a regular basis.

I’m sure there’s a calculator somewhere that estimates how much total energy is used new vs old, if you include manufacturing and replacement energy costs.
The IEA Life Cycle Assessment calculator is quite complete and when you reduce the "Average mileage" traveled per day the difference between Internal combustion, Hybrid, and EV quickly flattens out.
https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/...calculator

Obviously, everyone should do what they can, but the problem is large and systemic and will take concerted effort, either via politics or direct action, not just circle jerking, to use a phallic-focused idiom as is the current Punaweb style of the time. Given the olds collectively aren't real interested in making the changes needed at the political level, I wouldn't blame the keiki if they do what's needed to protect themselves and their future and start banding together to deal with the situation "accordingly". I only hope when they (g)round me up it's not to appease some AI-induced hallucination of "He who walks behind the rows" but as a nutrient-rich fertilizer for their corn (put Hawaiian Supersweet Hybrid #10 on my epitaph ;)

[MyManao]

I wouldn't blame the keiki if they do what they need to to protect themselves and their future and start banding together to deal with the situation "accordingly"..

OMG! are you threatening us!?!

[Wao nahele wahine]

[quote="ironyak" pid="362953" dateline="1781978194"]
Wao nahele wahine Well, Ironyak, we have some things in common: Offgrid, weekly trip to town, electric power tools via solar, many hand tools, no red meat.
Well, no offense, much of this is all just Puna 101 stuff, as most of all us have some combination of solar, EV, garden/livestock/permaculture, crunchy granola, DIY going on. It's only really noteworthy in contrast to the conventional mainland or Honolulu lifestyle. Out of curiosity, what are the neighbor's donkeys kept for - animal labor, companion animals, grass maintenance, etc?

All of my flights for the past 10 years have been for work.
The issue is that the physics of atmospheric warming don't care if we fly for work, or medical, or a weekend fling in Las Vegas, on stand-by or pre-booked. The physics are only determined by how much greenhouse gases are released in the process (roughly 1.4 metric tons eCO2 HNL to the West Coast, round trip - that's 1.4 million grams so the same as generating 1.4 million AI images by your earlier calculations - BTW, care the share your source for that info as other sources put higher values on the results?)

No offense, Ironyak, but folks out there are eating red meat...lol. We stopped for health reasons. Our neighbors initially got the donkey for their oldest daughter, who had taken an interest in horse riding. (Those same neighbors invited us over for hot dogs the other day...not saying that's red meat, or even meat. We declined.) When her interest didn't fade, they got her a horse. Their property doesn't have sufficient grazing area, but we do. Another neighbor's horse is brought to our place also for the same reasons. Both horses are just for riding. Apologies for the long winded horse reply.

Well...duh that flights have a high carbon usage. My point was that it was work related so it was necessary. It's for nuclear energy related work, which has a high EROI. BTW, I'm not judging anyone who flies for vacation.

Gemini was the AI I used for my image and it wasn't high res. Your link shows lower res images below 2 grams...being off grid reduces the carbon usage a bit. I was basically lazy and googled my info. ..asking for carbon usage for a Gemini AI image. I neglected to add that it was solar array power being used. That reduces the footprint more. For sake of argument at this point, I think stating a gram is fair. I'm sure you'll tear me apart for that answer...lol. Then again, if we were all very serious about reducing our footprint as much as possible, we wouldn't live out here.


After reading everyone else's contributions (thanks to those who posted), I will add the following:

We have a 2008 truck and a 1999 suv. The truck comes in handy for hauling large items. We help with clearing dumped garbage, appliances, furniture, etc along part of Government Beach Road.

I have one gas powered weed whacker with a carbide blade. Works wonders for taking down cane grass. A sawzall works well for small clumps. We also have a gas powered mower with a detachable cart used for hauling yard waste to one of several composting areas on the property.


Off to work on the property...