Carbon Neutral MOTORING

Happy Earth Day!

Auroville CarbonNeutral is launching a new initiative today: Carbon Neutral Motoring.

The scheme is offered to all people living and/or staying in Auroville to off-set the carbon emissions from their mopeds, scooters, motorcycles and cars.

We calculated the amount of CO2 emissions the various types of fossil-fuel burning vehicles are emitting into the atmosphere and how many trees you should plant to neutralise this.
One tree planted in Auroville costs Rs 50 to germinate, grow, plant and take care of for 2 years.

This translated into the following suggested off-set contributions:

• 2-stroke moped (TVS) / scooter: Rs 200
• 4- stroke motorcycle / scooter: Rs 150
• Enfield Bullet: Rs 275
• Indica / Zen: Rs 775
• Ambassador: Rs 1000

(average 40 km/day assumed; source: Down to Earth - 30 Nov 2001)

As with the Carbon Neutral flying initiative, this initiative is voluntary and the amounts suggested are indicative. You are free to make whichever donation you feel comfortable with.

The donations will go to the Auroville Forest Fund and will be used to plant rare and endangered species of TDEF trees.

PourTous account: 251515 - Auroville CarbonNeutral

Global Warming - The Blame Is not with the Plants

International scientific team reacts to misinterpretation of their research results and provides the correct perspective.

A week after announcing their surprising discovery that plants release 10 to 30 percent of the world's methane—a potent greenhouse gas—researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics warn that plants should not be blamed for recent global warming.

The scientists say that because emissions from plants are a natural source, they have existed long before man's influence started to impact atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. Anthropogenic emissions—especially agricultural cultivation—are responsible for the well-documented increase in atmospheric methane since pre-industrial times. Emissions from plants contribute to the natural greenhouse effect and not to the recent temperature increase usually referred to as "global warming".

"The potential for reduction of global warming by planting trees is most definitely positive," said Frank Keppler, a scientist involed in the research. "The fundamental problem still remaining is the global large-scale anthropogenic burning of fossil fuels."

Popcorn Aurovilians

We are happy to announce the following updates on donations collected towards the Auroville Carbon Neutral flying project:

• Rs 17,250.00 received from Inside India, matching donations given by their customers after booking their flights through the Travel Shop. The Travel Shop will continue to match your donations in future.
• Rs 130,512.00 received from GoodPlanet in France. GoodPlanet is managed by Yann Arthus Bertrand, famous for the "Earth from Above" photographs and his lastest project "6 Billion Others".

Auroville is heating up and "Popcorn Aurovillians" have started to head off to cooler destinations!

Please remember to off-set the carbon emissions you put in the upper atmosphere when flying. Flying is producing an estimated 7% of all CO2 emissions on the planet and adding substantially to global climate change.

For Auroville Carbon Neutral,

Supriya

(cartoon courtesy of Emanuele)