That climate change is happening is now all too clear. Many of us want to take action to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions. Yet the lack of a consolidated source of reliable information on how to calculate one’s individual emissions and the difficulty in assessing different options for effectiveness and cost savings has proven to be a major stumbling block. But personal actions to reduce carbon emissions, if replicated on a sufficient scale, might just save the planet.

How to Live a Low-Carbon Life provides the first comprehensive, one-stop reference guide to calculating individual carbon emissions and it lays out clear plans for how individuals can reduce their emissions. Covering all aspects of modern life from transport to home heating to food sources and the vexing issue of vacations, the book provides easy-to-use tables for conducting a personal lifestyle carbon audit.

Easy reference tables enable rapid carbon footprint calculations, and a companion website houses downloadable spreadsheets to facilitate a complete lifestyle carbon audit as well as up-to-the minute information on new products and carbon-reducing technologies.

This is the most comprehensive guide to calculating and reducing individual and home carbon emissions. It provides all the information needed for people and families to understand their impacts on the world’s climate. It gives us the information to enable us to adjust lifestyles and live a responsible life.

Written in an optimistic tone, How to Live a Low-Carbon Life shows how easy it is to take responsibility and reduce our personal carbon emissions.

Listen to Chris Goodall on NPR's Science Friday.  Click here to download the audio file.

Table of Contents:

List of Figures and Tables; Sources and Units of Measurement; Acknowledgements; Introduction: Getting from 12 ½ Tonnes to 3 Tonnes of Carbon Dioxide per Person; 1) The Extraordinary Cheapness of Fossil Fuels; 2) The Scope for Government Action; 3) The Inadequacy of Alternative Means of Reducing Emissions; 4) No One Else is Doing Much, So You’d Better Do Something Yourself; 5) How Our Lives Generate Emissions and What We Can Do About It; 6) Home Heating; 7) Water Heating and Cooking; 8) Lighting; 9) Household Appliances; 10) Car Travel; 11) Public Transport; 12) Air Travel; 13) Food; 14) Other Indirect Source of Greenhouse Gas Emissions; 15) Domestic Use of Renewable Energy; 16) Cancelling Out Emissions; 17) Conclusions; Afterword; Appendix: Sources of the Main Averages; notes; List of Acronyms and Abbreviations.