Calculating Your Christmas Carbon Footprint

(Dec. 22) -- According to a 2009 study by Rasmussen Reports, 86 percent of Americans, or more than 265 million of us, celebrate Christmas in some form. That's a lot of yuletide cheer -- and also a lot of energy consumption.

This season, as world leaders return from Copenhagen with an underwhelming agreement, Philadelphia's Energy Justice Network has been imploring concerned citizens to issue cheeky faux-citations to neighborhood Clark Griswolds, whose exuberant holiday light displays contribute to a 27 percent increase in energy output between Thanksgiving and Christmas, or 251 pounds of CO2 per person. Leaving aside the question of whether handing out paper warnings might be a counterproductive corrective, that still leaves a host of carbon-burning seasonal activities unaddressed. So we got to wondering: Overall, just how bad for the planet is the average American's seasonal orgy of excess?

Pretty bad, it turns out. Here's how it all breaks down:

THE TREE
While a 2009 study by ISI Group found that sales of natural trees are up from last year, the National Christmas Tree Association estimates twice as many Americans still favor artificial over real. The NCTA reports that 85 percent of the fakes -- made of high-density polyethylene, plastic and steel -- are imported via boat from China, then trucked to stores.
CO2 tally: 137 pounds per person

THE LIGHTS
The most popular height for an artificial tree is 8 feet. The decorating rule of thumb is to use 100 incandescent lights per vertical foot which, at 100 lights per string, amounts to eight strings. According to Carbon Rally, a single string consumes about 500 watts of electricity every hour, and the average family runs its tree lights for six hours per day for 30 days.
CO2 tally: 251 pounds

THE PAPER TRAIL
According to the Clean Air Council, 4 million tons of U.S. paper waste is generated from gift wrap, cards and shopping bags per year -- for non-recyclers, that's 30 pounds of paper per person of extra climate impact.
CO2 tally: 0.2 pounds

THE FEAST
A University of Manchester study concluded that a roast turkey dinner for eight -- including bird, sides and dessert, though not the hot air generated by Uncle Chuck's obligatory political tirade -- generates a total of 44 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.
CO2 tally: 5.5 pounds

THE TRAVEL
According to AAA, the average American will travel 791 miles this holiday season; 88 percent of that travel will take place via car. The most-owned car in the U.S. is a Toyota Camry, which gets 26 to 33 miles per gallon.
CO2 tally: 700 pounds

THE ENTERTAINMENT
Sorry, Frosty, but watching all those Christmas TV specials adds up: According to Canada's National Post newspaper and the Institute of Physics, the collective tube time (assuming 85-watt units) makes for more than 5,000 tons of carbon emissions per 11.5 million households.
C02 tally: 0.91 pounds

THE MUFFIN TOP
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the average holiday weight gain is 1 pound. Seems modest enough, but researchers add that most never lose that pound. Earlier this year, the International Journal of Epidemiology reported that overweight people -- who eat more and require more energy to transport -- burn more CO2 than lean ones. Plug the relevant numbers into the Bon Appetit Low Carbon Calculator and the additional 15 calories per day it takes the average 180-pound person to sustain a 1-pound weight gain amounts to 43 pounds of CO2 released per person into the atmosphere per year.
C02 tally (over 30 days): 4.46 pounds

THE GRAND TOTAL
All in, it adds up to nearly 1,100 pounds of CO2 per American per Christmas. That's a sizable carbon footprint -- the same as two short round-trip flights, two months of powering your home, driving a motorcycle from Santa Fe to Montreal and back, or nearly a year's worth of steak dinners. Now, about that third cookie ...