This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has come out with a neat new calculator that can make sense of all those arbitrary-sounding greenhouse gas numbers.
What does a metric ton of carbon dioxide look like? The calculator shows a dozen different equivalencies, such as 114 gallons of consumed gasoline, 2.3 barrels of oil, or 0.01 acres of forest preserved from deforestation. And it’s not limited to metric tons or CO2. You also can try different amounts and different greenhouse gases.
The EPA developed the calculator to help people in communicating about reduction targets, but it’s useful to anyone trying to get a handle on the numbers.