Listen up, Global Warming worriers, here’s a statistic to chill your hearts: The Washington region produces more carbon dioxide than several medium-size European countries, according to a new estimate of local carbon-dioxide emissions by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. In 2005 the region emitted 65.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide — more than Hungary, Finland, Sweden, Denmark or Switzerland, reports the Washington Post.
The study might have actually under-counted the region’s carbon footprint. Although it counts the emissions of three coal-burning power plants in the Maryland sub-region, it apparently does not adjust for the fact that the Northern Virginia sub-region imports most of its electricity, much of it from coal, from outside the region.
Even if you don’t accept the conventional wisdom that carbon dioxide emissions are propelling the world towards catastrophic climate change, there are still good reasons to find these numbers disturbing: They’re a good proxy for the energy intensity of the regional economy. Benchmarking against European economies shows how much potential there is to conserve energy, reeuce pollution and strip unnecessary costs out of the economy.
I don’t know if I’d want to model the Washington regional economy after Hungary or Lithuania, but Switzerland undeniably has one of the world’s highest standards of living. It might be worth taking a look at what those goat-herding, gun-toting watchmakers are up to.
(Hat tip to Larry Gross.)