City dwellers produce as much CO2 as countryside people do

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.aalto.fi/en/current//news/view/2011-06-22/

City dwellers produce as much CO2 as countryside people do

22.06.2011

Most previous studies have indicated that people in cities have a smaller carbon footprint than people who live in the country.

By using more complex methods of analysis than in the past, scientists at Aalto University in Finland have discovered that people's carbon emissions are practically the same in the city and in the rural areas. More than anything else, CO2 emissions that cause climate change are dependent upon how much goods and services people consume, not where they live.

In their study, Researcher Jukka Heinonen and Professor Seppo Junnila allocated carbon emissions to their consumption location, not their production location.

− If a TV set is made in a factory in the countryside but bought and used by a person in a town, the carbon emission generated from making the television should be allocated to the consumer, not to a manufacturer making it for the consumer, said Jukka Heinonen.

…

The study has been published in Environmental Research Letters (ERL) (http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/6/1/014018/fulltext).

…

[Exultant Democracy]

1. This only looks at consumption, not the opportunity cost associated with suburban sprawl

which in my opinion means their findings don't mean dick. If you cut down a forest to build a new suburban neighborhood you remove a carbon sink and add a carbon source. While at the same time if you reclaim a brownfield in an urban center lets say and old mill (they are all over new england) you get to keep your trees and house more people then some McMansion cul-de-sac hell will.

[tularetom]

2. Yes but the cow farts more than make up for it

in the greenhouse gas department.