Re:'Greener, cheaper, much warmer' – heat pump owners laud t...
by robertlagrant on Monday January 08, 2024 @12:22PM
(#38915171)
> So if you're spending significantly more money overall on something in order to reduce your own carbon emissions, there's a pretty reasonable chance (barring any detailed analysis to prove otherwise) that the cascading effects of that spending are actually resulting in more carbon emissions in total than if you'd simply gone with the cheaper solution.
Or you reduce your carbon and increase costs massively, but another country doesn't, and your industry dies while theirs flourishes.
Re:'Greener, cheaper, much warmer' – heat pump owners laud t...
by tonyedgecombe on Monday January 08, 2024 @01:01PM
(#38915680)
In other words money is a reasonable approximation for energy and hence carbon emissions, at least at an individual level.
Re:'Greener, cheaper, much warmer' – heat pump owners laud t...
by Ajedi32 on Monday January 08, 2024 @01:36PM
(#38916120)
Yes thank you, that's a very succinct way of putting it.
Re:'Greener, cheaper, much warmer' – heat pump owners laud t...
by grotorea on Monday January 08, 2024 @01:50PM
(#38916337)
> Obviously this can't be universally true. It's a bit of a hand wavy argument, and the reductio ad absurdum conclusion would be that reducing global carbon emissions is impossible (which obviously isn't true). But I still think its something worth considering before making individual purchasing decisions based on perceived "greenness" to the demerit of price.
I think the reductio ad absurdum conclusion here is the degrowth-sounding argument that we need less economic activity to reduce emissions.
One thing your analysis may be missing is what you're going to do with the money saved.
Re:'Greener, cheaper, much warmer' – heat pump owners laud t...
by robertlagrant on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @04:26AM
(#38924023)
> Energy and labor are the biggest factors that drive supply chain costs in just about every industry.
Well, scale as well. Unit costs go down as production efficencies go up.
So if you're spending significantly more money overall on something in order to reduce your own carbon emissions, there's a pretty reasonable chance (barring any detailed analysis to prove otherwise) that the cascading effects of that spending are actually resulting in more carbon emissions in total than if you'd simply gone with the cheaper solution.
Obviously this can't be universally true. It's a bit of a hand wavy argument, and the reductio ad absurdum conclusion would be that reducing global carbon emissions is impossible (which obviously isn't true). But I still think its something worth considering before making individual purchasing decisions based on perceived "greenness" to the demerit of price.
(I'll also note that if hypothetically a carbon tax or carbon credits were instituted globally then this price-based way of estimating carbon emissions would suddenly become not just a rough approximation, but a highly accurate measurement.)