San Diego's Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Footprint Group #1

The mayor of San Diego county set a goal to reduce the GHG emissions by 7% below the recorded levels in 1990 by the year 2012. Unfortunately, the emissions increased from 32.10 billion kg in 1990 to 39.7 billion kg in 2005. In order to get to the anticipated goal GHG emission need to be reduced by 30% or 12.40 billion kg. These numbers listed above are from the class being separated into various groups to collect data about CO2 emissions from various state, county, and city agencies. The amounts of CO2 collected were converted into kilograms and analyzed. Then the class was split into two groups with each having a different area of focus. The focus of group #1 were CO2 emissions from transportation which included fuel, mileage, and fleet based emissions.

The highest CO2 fuel based emissions came from car fuels including gasoline and diesel. In contrast the lowest fuel based emissions came from aviation and jet fuels. In order for the 12.40 billion kg reduction to happen, it was split into six two billion kg wedges. Solutions for reducing the wedges were created and are as follows:

1. Reduce the driving week by encouraging people to drive only six days per week instead of seven.
2. Encourage the automotive manufacturers to increase or have government mandated miles per gallon ratings to improve the miles per gallon a vehicle gets.
3. Replace natural gas with renewable energy such as solar or wind power.
4. Encourage people to join a carpool.
5. Give incentives for people to own hybrid vehicles by giving tax cuts to encourage people to replace their old cars with hybrid models.
6. Give incentives and more protection on the road to encourage people to buy and drive motorcycles instead of cars.

According to an article from the Union Tribune, the goal of reducing GHG emissions to 7% below the 1990 levels maybe impossible. Two solutions mentioned would require more than half of the vehicles be removed from the road or eliminating all residential and industrial energy use in the city. Of course these solutions are unrealistic but unless something drastic is done to reduce the GHG emissions, the emissions will continue to increase with the growing population of San Diego. From studies, the reasons for the increase in emissions from 1990 to 2004 were due to an increase in computer rooms that must remain cool, energy use from residential homes, and vehicles on the roads. Many of the people are optimistic because city residents might not be willing to make significant changes to their daily lives to lower the GHG emission. In order for emission reduction to happen education of the public has to happen to make people aware of the severity of global warming and the city needs to make incentives for people to want to change their daily lives to better the environment.