"350 Parts per Million"

by Kat Mor

The new sought after climate deal, currently being mulled over by 110 of the worlds presidents and prime ministers in Copenhagen seeks to make countries legally accountable for their CO2 emissions, and has drawn a lot of attention to climate change and the issues surrounding global warming in the process.

One environmentalist group that spearheads the pursuit of this deal and whose supporters fill the streets surrounding Copenhagen's conference center is '350'. I would like to credit all climate information in this article to them unless otherwise stated.

The premise of 350 is simple: "350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere".  The world currently has 390ppm floating through its atmosphere, which, scientists say, is too high, and whilst increasing at a rate of approximately 2ppm per year will wreak havoc on our climate and our world.

Scientists and 350 tell a devastating tale of havoc should this number continue to rise: the world will generally warm up due to the increased amount of CO2 trapping in the atmosphere's heat. this will lead to the ice caps melting, drought will pervade many areas of previously arable land making it harder to grow crops, sea levels will rise flooding lower coastlines and mosquitoes will spread to the newly warm parts of the earth and spreading malaria and dengue fever in their wake to name but a few of the consequences.

So how can we get the parts per million of carbon dioxide in our environment back down below 350 and at a safe level to prevent climate disaster? One answer is sustainable housing. In the US, conventional housing now contributes 30% of the CO2 to our air (www.globalgreen.org) through their reliance on air conditioning, central heating, oil and other fossil fuels. Imagine if you could eliminate that reliance. As cheesy as it sounds, with earthships you can.

There are 6 main principles that define an earthship:

Built with natural and recycled materials
Thermal heating and cooling
Solar and wind power
Water harvesting
Contained sewage treatment
Food production

Earthships start with a negative carbon footprint by taking post consumer waste such as car tires, aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles and using them as materials for construction, building blocks if you like.

The home taps into the constant temperature of 58F that is found 4ft below our feet and beyond along with natural convection for temperature control without fossil fuels, and wind or solar power for all your electrical needs.

Water is harvested from the roof and filtered to drinking quality, recycled 4 times within the house and used to grow the food producing plants that are the first stage of cleansing and recycling your used sink/shower water.

There is a lot to be said for those food producing plants: The food many of us currently buy has traveled an average of 1500 miles before it reaches our plate (Kingsolver, 'Animal, Vegetable, Mircale' (2007) p5), and it is said that if 'every US citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by 1.1 million barrels of oil every week'  (ibid.) oil which again contributes to the particulate matter of CO2 in the atmosphere.

If every home in the US was an earthship using zero fossil fuels the parts per million of CO2 in the environment (for the US), would start decreasing towards a rate of 273ppm - the rate it was up until about 200 years ago. The people behind 350 believe '275 is a useful amount', with enough CO2 emissions to maintain the earth's atmosphere at a warm, inhabitable level, without posing the dangers listed above. The reduction in the consumption of oil and the functional use of post consumer waste would be additional bonuses.

As I'm writing this the climate deal in Copenhagen is still under negotiation, and every home in the US is a very long way from being an earthship, but through our increased awareness of the issues at stake, we can seek to change this home by home.

I'll leave you with a graph compiled by 350 and taken from their website, 350.org. It shows our current rate of ppm in the atmosphere and what will happen to this level if it remains unchecked. Please check 350.org for more information on the parts of CO2 per million in the atmosphere and the new climate deal.

Kat Mor.

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