F.A.Q.'s - Basics

The "greenhouse (GHG) effect" refers to the temperature regulation effect that certain atmospheric gases have on earth. Temperature-regulating GHG's, form a blanket around the earth that traps some heat from the sun within the earth's atmosphere, keeping the planet warm and habitable. "Global warming", or climate change, can occur when the blanket of GHG's gets thicker over a period of time. Climate models from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as models from other scientific bodies, indicate that global concentrations of GHG's have been rising steadily over the past 100 years.

As atmospheric concentrations of GHG's increase, the greenhouse blanket gets thicker. This causes heat to be trapped in the lower layers of the atmosphere and may cause global average temperatures to rise. Implementation of the Chicago Climate Exchange will help build and test the institutions and skills needed to cost-effectively manage greenhouse gases. The six major types of GHG's covered under current policies and most trading programs are: " Carbon dioxide (CO2) " Methane (CH4) " Nitrous Oxide (N2O) " Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) " Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) " Hydro fluorocarbons (HFC's)

The term 'carbon' is often used as shorthand for carbon dioxide (CO2), as in 'carbon debt'. However, this isn't just about carbon dioxide. When we talk about clearing carbon, we actually refer to six key pollutants, collectively referred to as 'greenhouse gases' (GHG's): Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous oxide, Hydro fluorocarbons, Per fluorocarbons, Sulphur hexafluoride. The main GHG is Carbon Dioxide, so to keep things simple; scientists talk about these gases in terms of Metric Ton's (MT's) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq), so that we can compare apples with apples. So, you're really supporting the cleansing of all six main greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide. Our calculators work out the quantity of greenhouse gases, and express them in the figure of MT's of CO2. Our projects also reduce emissions of greenhouse gases other than CO2, and convert these to carbon dioxide equivalents.

Scientists have concluded that human activities are contributing to global warming by adding large amounts of heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere. Our fossil fuel use is the main source of these gases. Every time we drive a car, use electricity from coal-fired power plants, or heat our homes with oil or natural gas, we release carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the air. The second most important source of greenhouse gases is deforestation, mainly in the tropics, and other land-use changes.

Since pre-industrial times, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by 31 percent. Over the same period, atmospheric methane has risen by 151 percent, mostly from agricultural activities like growing rice and raising cattle.

As the concentration of these gases grows, more heat is trapped by the atmosphere and less escapes back into space. This increase in trapped heat changes the climate, causing altered weather patterns that can bring unusually intense precipitation or dry spells and more severe storms.

Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring gas in our atmosphere, oceans, and land. The chemical formula is CO2. That is one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms make one molecule of carbon dioxide.

The Earth's atmosphere is a fraction of 1% CO2. Nationalcenter.org says the number is .03%. That adds up to 780 billion tons of CO2. If the CO2 were Asian elephants, there would be 264 BILLION elephants flying through the air (carry a STRONG umbrella!). If www.overpopulation.net is right about the world's population being 6 billion, we would have almost 44 elephants flying through the air for every person on the planet.

At sea level, normal atmospheric pressure is 14.7 PSI. Multiply that by the earth's surface, and you get a huge number that is a 5 followed by 15 zeroes. We have a science worksheet for this.

The EPA says 19 pounds of carbon dioxide. We have a science Worksheet for this.

It is not CarbonlessPromise.com's place to prove or disprove global warming. You should research and learn for yourself. You can also download the data from government resources on the WEB. Do NOT accept any one else's conclusions, formulate your own!

In 1824, Joseph Fourier put forward the theory of Green House gases and their effect on the atmosphere. The theory, in a nutshell, states that certain compounds in our atmosphere refract and prevent from escaping heat that is sent to us by the sun. This "greenhouse effect" refers to the natural phenomenon that keeps the Earth in a temperature range that allows life to flourish. The sun's enormous energy warms the Earth's surface and its atmosphere. As this energy radiates back toward space as heat, a portion is absorbed by a delicate balance of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere—among them carbon dioxide and methane—which creates an insulating layer. With the temperature control of the greenhouse effect, the Earth has an average surface temperature of 59°F (15°C). Without it, the average surface temperature would be 0°F (-18°C), a temperature so low that the Earth would be frozen and could not sustain life.

"Global warming" refers to the rise in the Earth's temperature resulting from an increase in heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.

In 1988, the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization set up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to examine the most current scientific information on global warming and climate change. More than 1,250 authors and 2,500 scientific experts reviewers from more than 130 countries contributed to the panel's most recent report, Climate Change 2007: The Fourth Assessment Report (the full report will be released in November 2007). These scientists reviewed all the published and peer-reviewed scientific information produced during the previous few years to assess what is known about the global climate, why and how it changes, what it will mean for people and the environment, and what can be done about it.

The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report is the most comprehensive and up-to-date evaluation of global warming. As the new benchmark, it serves as the basis for international climate negotiations.

Yes. The IPCC concluded in its Third Assessment Report, "An increasing body of observations gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system." The kinds of changes already observed that create this consistent picture include the following:

Examples of observed climatic changes:

• Increase in global average surface temperature of about 1°F in the 20th century
• Decrease of snow cover and sea ice extent and the retreat of mountain glaciers in the latter half of the 20th century
• Rise in global average sea level and the increase in ocean water temperatures
• Likely increase in average precipitation over the middle and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, and over tropical land areas
• Increase in the frequency of extreme precipitation events in some regions of the world
• Examples of observed physical and ecological changes
• Thawing of permafrost
• Lengthening of the growing season in middle and high latitudes
• Poleward and upward shift of plant and animal ranges
• Earlier flowering trees
• Earlier emergence of insects
• Earlier egg-laying in birds

In 1995, the world's climate experts in the IPCC concluded for the first time in a cautious consensus, "The balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on the global climate." In its 2001 assessment, the IPCC strengthened that conclusion considerably, saying, "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities."

Scientists have found significant evidence that leads to this conclusion:

• The observed warming over the past 100 years is unlikely to be due to natural causes alone; it was unusual even in the context of the last 1,000 years.
• There are better techniques to detect climatic changes and attribute them to different causes.
• Simulations of the climate's response to natural causes (sun, volcanoes, etc.) over the latter half of the 20th century alone cannot explain the observed trends.
• Most simulation models that take into account greenhouse gas emissions and sulphate aerosols (which have a cooling effect) are consistent with observations over the last 50 years.

The IPCC's Third Assessment Report projects that the Earth's average surface temperature will increase between 2.5° and 10.4°F (1.4°-5.8°C) between 1990 and 2100 if no major efforts are undertaken to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (the "business-as-usual" scenario). This is significantly higher than what the Panel predicted in 1995 (1.8°-6.3°F, or 1.0°-3.5°C), mostly because scientists expect a reduced cooling effect from tiny particles (aerosols) in the atmosphere.

Scientists predict that even if we stopped emitting heat-trapping gases immediately, the climate would not stabilize for many decades because the gases we have already released into the atmosphere will stay there for years or even centuries. So while the warming may be lower or increase at a slower rate than predicted if we reduce emissions significantly, global temperatures cannot quickly return to today's averages. And the faster and more the Earth warms, the greater the chances are for some irreversible climate changes.

An increase of a few degrees won't simply make for pleasantly warmer temperatures around the globe. Even a modest rise of 2°- 3°F (1.1°-1.7°C) could have dramatic effects. In the last 10,000 years, the Earth's average temperature hasn't varied by more than 1.8°F (1.0°C). Temperatures only 5°-9°F cooler than those today prevailed at the end of the last Ice Age, in which the Northeast United States was covered by more than 3,000 feet of ice.

Scientists predict that continued global warming on the order of 2.5°-10.4°F over the next 100 years (as projected in the IPCC's Third Assessment Report) is likely to result in:

• A rise in sea level between 3.5 and 34.6 in. (9-88 cm), leading to more coastal erosion, flooding during storms, and permanent inundation
• Severe stress on many forests, wetlands, alpine regions, and other natural ecosystems
• Greater threats to human health as mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects and rodents spread diseases over larger geographical regions
• Disruption of agriculture in some parts of the world due to increased temperature, water stress, and sea-level rise in low-lying areas such as Bangladesh or the Mississippi River delta.

Global warming and ozone depletion are two separate but related threats. Global warming and the greenhouse effect refer to the warming of the lower part of the atmosphere (also known as the troposphere) due to increasing concentrations of heat-trapping gases. By contrast, the ozone hole refers to the loss of ozone in the upper part of the atmosphere, called the stratosphere. This is of serious concern because stratospheric ozone blocks incoming ultraviolet radiation from the sun, some of which is harmful to plants, animals, and humans.

The two problems are related in a number of ways, including:

• Some human-made gases, called chlorofluorocarbons, trap heat and destroy the ozone layer. Currently, these gases are responsible for less than 10 percent of total atmospheric warming, far less than the contribution from the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.
• The ozone layer traps heat, so if it gets destroyed, the upper atmosphere actually cools, thereby offsetting part of the warming effect of other heat-trapping gases. But that's no reason to rejoice: the cooling of the upper layers of the atmosphere can produce changes in the climate that affect weather patterns in the higher latitudes.
• Trapping heat in the lower part of the atmosphere allows less heat to escape into space and leads to cooling of the upper part of the atmosphere. The colder it gets, the greater the destruction of the protective ozone layer.
• Reducing ozone-depleting gases is crucial to preventing further destruction of the ozone layer, but eliminating these gases alone will not solve the global warming problem. On the other hand, efforts to reduce all types of emissions to limit global warming will also be good for the recovery of the ozone layer.

Yes! The most important action we can take to slow global warming is to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases. Governments, individuals, and businesses can all help.

Governments can adopt a range of options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including:

• Increasing energy efficiency standards
• Encouraging the use of renewable energy sources (such as wind and solar power)
• Eliminating subsidies that encourage the use of coal and oil by making them artificially cheap
• Protecting and restoring forests, which serve as important storehouses of carbon
• Individuals can reduce the need for fossil fuels and often save money by
  • Driving less and driving more fuel-efficient and less-polluting cars
  • Using energy-efficient appliances
  • Insulating homes
  • Using less electricity in general
• Businesses can increase efficiency and save substantial sums by doing the same things on a larger scale. And utilities can avoid building expensive new power plants by encouraging and helping customers to adopt efficiency measures

Reducing our impact on the global climate does not have to hurt the world's economies. The answer depends much on the "how" and "when."

The challenge is to strike a balance between responding early enough to avoid major negative (costly) impacts, and responding some time later in order to avoid taking big, expensive steps now which then may turn out to be unnecessary or inappropriate. This type of challenge is typical in business and industry; decision-making under uncertainty is the daily bread of most managers.

Clearly, global warming still involves many unknowns, but the remaining uncertainties in our scientific understanding no longer warrant a "wait and see" stance. Science tells us with increasing certainty that we are in for a serious long-term problem that will affect all of us.

And there is much we can do now that makes sense in terms of the economic bottom line while helping to reduce our impact on the global climate and on our local environment and health. The United States and other developed countries should seize the opportunity to take the lead in developing new, clean, energy-efficient technologies, and help developing countries take a greener path to economic prosperity. All of this can be done in a cost-effective manner, while creating jobs and new business opportunities.

We also don't try to figure out how much gas your lawn mower uses. We are working on researching if lawn maintenance plus mulch methane release plus leaf disposal minus carbon used by plants is a break-even or not. We generally consider pre-existing trees to be part of the global or regional legacy carbon sink. We do not take them into account until you remove one. If you take one tree down, you should arrange for two to be put back up. You can order one ton of Reforestation offsets to compensate for trees you take down.

If you take one tree down, you should arrange for two to be put back up. You can order one ton of Reforestation Offsets to compensate for trees you take down.

While some may say the trees are a problem because of leaves, needles, branches, etc on the roof, there are some definite benefits to having the trees. During the winter, the trees serve as a windbreak, lowering your heating costs. During the summer, the shade from the leaves provides cooling breaks.

The first major environmental success of the emissions trading concept was demonstrated in the 1980's U.S. program to phase out lead from motor fuel. This was followed by the highly successful U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions trading program, which continues to prove the concept on a large scale. To reduce acid rain, an overall cap on SO2 emissions was imposed on electric power plants. Power generators that find it expensive to cut sulfur emissions can buy allowances from those that make extraordinary cuts at low cost. While the first compliance year was 1995, trading started several years earlier. The Chicago Board of Trade administered the first EPA auction, in 1993. Through private transactions and annual auctions, electric power generators trade emission allowances to arrive at an efficient use of mitigation resources.
The SO2 program has been extremely successful: emissions were reduced faster than required and costs are far below most forecasts. There has also been steady growth in the trading of allowances, from 700,000 tons of registered trades in 1995 to approximately 12 million tons in 2001. The market has now reached a value of approximately $2 billion each year for registered trades. Estimates suggest there are annually $2 billion a year in SO2 allowance derivatives such as options, forwards and other unregistered trades.
Application of flexible, market-based mechanisms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions has achieved widespread intellectual and political support. This broad acceptance of emissions trading was reflected in the Kyoto Protocol, which established several emissions trading mechanisms. Signatory countries to this treaty adopt legally binding commitments to reduce emissions to levels below those experienced in 1990.
It is clear that the demand to reduce greenhouse gases will grow over time. Taking action to limit greenhouse gas emissions and create value for these reductions makes good business sense. However, these emerging markets, and an international market linking them, are still in their infancy. This results in large transaction costs and market inefficiencies. Examples of barriers to trading are:

• Regulatory uncertainty
• lack of a clear, widely-accepted definition of the commodity
• lack of standards for monitoring, verification, and trade documentation
• lack of standards for eligibility of project-based emission offsets
• lack of organized markets and clear market prices. It was against this background, and to address these problems, that the Chicago Climate Exchange has been established

When calculating the CO2 emissions from your activities, carbonlesspromise.com uses officially published figures (e.g. from the EPA and several other international organizations who's standards have become globally accepted) to convert quantities of fuel and energy to CO2 emissions. We use various calculations, based on the information you are able to input, to create a base or average emissions number for transportation (cars, airlines, trains, etc.), homes and businesses of various sizes provided by the US EPA. The US EPA provides greenhouse gas emissions for our calculations.

A beginner's guide to the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol Try this link http://unfccc.int

The flexible mechanisms are reality today, since the Kyoto Protocol entered into force on 16 February 2005. Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) accruing from CDM projects can be used for compliance by installations covered by the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) as of 01.01.2005. Both CERs and Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) accruing from JI projects can be used for compliance with the Kyoto Protocol in the first commitment period 2008-2012.

CarbonlessPromise.com provides emissions reductions for the voluntary market and in conjunction with the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), this allows us to identify, develop and trade offset credits within the established voluntary framework that the CCX has established in the US. Since the US is not a signator of the Kyoto Protocol we are unable to trade or participate in the EU process of creating offsets. We can however purchase and sell EU credits as necessary for customers who have a global need.