The Story of Upfront Carbon: How a Life of Just Enough Offers a Way Out of the Climate Crisis

Author:   Lloyd Alter
Publisher:   New Society Publishers
ISBN:  

9780865719927


Pages:   192
Publication Date:   21 May 2024
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

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The Story of Upfront Carbon: How a Life of Just Enough Offers a Way Out of the Climate Crisis


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Overview

"When you look at the world through the lens of upfront carbon, everything changes Think that buying an electric car or switching to a heat pump is going to save the planet? Think again. ""Upfront carbon"" refers to all emissions involved in making your car, your home, or any other item. These invisible embodied carbon emissions matter a lot. As we weed out fossils fuels and incorporate more renewables into our energy supply, upfront carbon becomes increasingly dominant compared to operating emissions, yet it is often ignored. By focusing on consumption rather than production, The Story of Upfront Carbon covers: Why we are fixated on energy efficiency, not carbon, and why this needs to change Why carbon calculations are so fiendishly difficult How the simple idea of sufficiency for individuals and whole economies is a powerful strategy to avert looming climate catastrophe The astonishing upfront carbon of everyday objects from coffee cups to heat pumps, and why electric bikes, not electric cars, are the answer How big-picture thinking and a systemic approach to production can help guide the transition to degrowth and an equitable, zero-carbon society. Leavened with wit and packed with concrete strategies for minimizing the ecological footprint of transportation, agriculture, consumer goods, the built environment, and more, this highly readable and accessible guide is required reading for a world on the brink."

Full Product Details

Author:   Lloyd Alter
Publisher:   New Society Publishers
Imprint:   New Society Publishers
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.10cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.304kg
ISBN:  

9780865719927


ISBN 10:   0865719926
Pages:   192
Publication Date:   21 May 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Carbon Upfront The lens of upfront carbon What are upfront carbon emissions and why are they important? Why we are fixated on energy, not carbon Carbon takes command The IPCC does not say we're doomed OK Doomer History of embodied carbon The carbon footprint of everything The unbearable heaviness of carbon Transparency from shoes to motorcycles The future we want: supply vs demand Dematerialization and degrowth Enjoy the ride with demand-side mitigation Why sufficiency is the solution Chapter 2: Strategies for Sufficiency Materiality: building out of sunshine Materiality: use less stuff Materiality: using less of the bad stuff Ephemerality Frugality Simplicity Flexibility Circularity Universality Resiliency Satiety and enoughness Electricity Intermittency Operating efficiency Design efficiency Inequity Chapter 3: Stuff Introduction to stuff The single-use coffee cup From the 2X4 to mass timber The e-cargo bike The heat pump The puffer jacket The hamburger The folly of foam insulation The car The block of flats/ apartments The shoe Conclusion Everything connects A prosperous ascent Conclusion

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Author Information

Lloyd Alter is a writer, public speaker, architect, inventor, and Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Design at Toronto Metropolitan University. He has published many thousands of articles on TreeHugger where he was Design Editor, and on such diverse platforms as Planet Green, HuffPo, The Guardian, Corporate Knights Magazine, and Azure Magazine. A former builder of prefab housing and a tiny-house pioneer, Lloyd is a passionate advocate of Radical Sufficiency – the belief that we use too much space, too much land, too much food, too much fuel, and too much money, and that the key to sustainability is to simply use less. He is the author of Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle. Lloyd lives in Toronto, Ontario.

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