We have now learned how much money installing solar collectors would cost and save, but what about the environmental cost and saving?   According to the  report, Getting into Hot Water by David L. Ryan (CBEEDAC Enerinfo Building), 22% of a household’s greenhouse gas emissions comes from heating domestic water!  Therefore, by installing solar collectors, we would be decreasing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions for a household.

 

Recently a program called Carbon Credits was developed in order to increase the awareness of greenhouse gas emissions.  I believe this is basically a guilt tax. One would figure out the amount of emissions that one would produce and one would pay a certain amount to go toward environmental research.  This is not a mandated program, but is offered for those people who would like to give back to the environment.

 

Being curious, I then proceeded to the Carbonfund website, (http://carbonfund.org/site/pages/calculator/category/Assumptions/), where I found that for the amount of emissions our household creates in a year from heating domestic water, it would only cost $9.73 to buy carbon credits.  I believe that in order for the Carbon Credit program to be of worth, the price of each credit should be increased so that people understand the environmental impact they create.  Buying credits just because the price is low will not instill environmental awareness.  Using solar collectors however would eliminate those 22% emissions and, we would then leave a smaller environmental footprint.

Ellie Shifflett 

Grade 8, Cayley School

Last Edited May 1/07