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What do I do every day that creates the most greenhouse gas emissions?
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Probably your most greenhouse-gas-intense activities involve your home and transportation, both of which contribute enormously to the combustion of fossil fuels and the release of carbon dioxide (CO2).

In your home and your workplace, you use lots of electricity. Electrical generation represents almost 40% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, most of it the result of burning coal. Kansas, for example, derives almost 75% of its electricity from coal-fired power plants.

To get to and from home and work, plus the grocery store and all those places in between, you probably drive. Driving consumes gasoline. The transportation sector is the second largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, coming in at 27%.

More specifically, how do you create these emissions? Check out our Take Steps section for answers on how to reduce your carbon footprint. Or you might want to read what National Geographic has to say, in their Green Guide.

The average home produces twice the amount of greenhouse gases as does the average car. The ACEEE lists which appliances in your home draw the most energy (measured in watts):
  • Aquarium = 50–1210 Watts
  • Clock radio = 10
  • Coffee maker = 900–1200
  • Clothes washer = 350–500
  • Clothes dryer = 1800–5000
  • Dishwasher = 1200–2400 (using the drying feature greatly increases energy consumption)
  • Dehumidifier = 785
  • Electric blanket- Single/Double = 60 / 100
  • Fans
    • Ceiling = 65–175
    • Window = 55–250
  • Furnace = 750
  • Whole house = 240–750
  • Hair dryer = 1200–1875
  • Heater (portable) = 750–1500
  • Clothes iron = 1000–1800
  • Microwave oven = 750–1100
  • Personal computer
    • CPU - awake / asleep = 120 / 30 or less
    • Monitor - awake / asleep = 150 / 30 or less
    • Laptop = 50
  • Radio (stereo) = 70–400
  • Refrigerator (frost-free, 16 cubic feet) = 725
  • Televisions (color)
    • 19" = 65–110
    • 27" = 113
    • 36" = 133
    • 53"-61" Projection = 170
    • Flat screen = 120
  • Toaster = 800–1400
  • Toaster oven = 1225
  • VCR/DVD = 17–21 / 20–25
  • Vacuum cleaner = 1000–1440
  • Water heater (40 gallon) = 4500–5500
  • Water pump (deep well) = 250–1100
  • Water bed (with heater, no cover) = 120–380
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“Iraq and a lot of the skirmishes we are in are about energy. And I think, to put it in a nutshell, we feel it makes more sense to put wind turbines on our prairie instead of our fine young men and women under the prairie."
Kirk Lowell, Concordia KS - home to Meridian Way wind farm
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