Tuesday, June 05, 2007

CRAGS - Carbon Rationing Groups

Britain is Still Being Rationed, Eight Years after the End of the War!
Britain is Still Being Rationed, Eight Years after the End of the War!



rational (comparative more rational, superlative most rational)
Characterized by truth or logic.
(arithmetic) (no comparative or superlative) Of a number, capable of being expressed as the ratio of two integers.




Are you serious about reducing your carbon emissions? Do you want to be accountable to others for your carbon emissions?

The reason for carbon rationing is to avert dangerous climate change and thus limit greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.

Without radical action within the next decade, extreme weather, rising seas and shifting rainfall patterns threaten to cause mounting damage to societies across the world - hitting hardest those least able to adapt.
• Do you agree we all have an equal responsibility for the atmosphere upon which we all
depend?
• Do you agree with the principle of "the polluter pays"?
• Do you believe that we can show government the way?
If you answered yes to these questions, you don't need any more reasons!

How does carbon rationing work?

The atmosphere has a limited capacity to soak up green house gases. Carbon rationers believe that this represents a unique shared resource.
In a carbon rationing society, those producing more than their fair share (or ration) of green house gases can only do so by finding someone who is living within their fair share and therefore has some ration to spare. In this way, polluters are penalised, the rest of society benefits and the total amount of green house gases produced is controlled.
If we reduce the size of our ration year by year, carbon rationing becomes a pathway to a fairer, lower carbon future.
What is a Carbon Rationing Action Group or CRAG?
A CRAG is a group of people who have decided to act together to reduce their individual and collective carbon footprints. They do this in annual cycle. First they set themselves an annual emissions target or "carbon ration". Then they keep track of their emissions over the year by keeping a record of their household energy use and private car and plane travel.
Finally, at the end of the year, they take responsibility for any "carbon debt" (i.e. emissions over and above their ration) that they have built up. All carbon debts are paid into the group's "carbon fund" at an agreed rate per kilo of CO2 debt. The fund is then distributed as agreed by the members of the group.

You can find a group near you on the carbon rationing website and if there is none near you, you could set one up. Or, if that scares you to go public, make yourself accountable first and decide what you will do with your overspending. Details of how to calculate your emissions is on the website.

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