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Cook County was ranked the third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in a study funded by the US Department of Energy and NASA. The top ten, in million tons of CO2 per year:
- Harris, Texas (Houston), 18.625
- Los Angeles, Calif. (Los Angeles), 18.595
- Cook, Ill. (Chicago), 13.209
- Cuyahoga, Ohio (Cleveland), 11.144
- Wayne, Mich. (Detroit), 8.270
- San Juan, N.M. (Farmington), 8.245
- Santa Clara, Calif. (San Jose), 7.995
- Jefferson, Ala. (Birmingham), 7.951
- Wilcox, Ala. (Camden), 7.615
- East Baton Rouge, La. (Baton Rouge), 7.322
That's a carbon dioxide emissions map, right, and if you click on it, you can see the super-high-res version that's 100 times more detailed than previous maps.
The list is part of the Vulcan Project, which tries to quantify North American fossil fuel emissions more precisely. [More on Vulcan, Reuters]
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Not surprising considering the three counties on the top of the list are the three largest counties in the country population wise. Wonder how the list would break down if they measured per capita?
Santa Clara, for example, produces 7.995 million tons and has a population of around 1,700,000. Jefferson County only has a population of 700,000 and produces 7.951 million tons. Cook County has a population of over 5,300,000, and produces less than double of both of the above mentioned counties.
Kind of a silly way of organizing the information. New York City would probably be at/near the top of the list if you considered all five of its counties. They should have organized it regionally or by metropolitan area.
I find it interesting the way increased emissions correspond to the location of interstate highways on the map. For instance, you can clearly see I-80 across northern Nevada or the mishmash of interstates across Illinois.
It reminds me of those photo montages of the earth at night from space, which also clearly show the interstates. Of course, you're not seeing the highways themselves, but the lights from the population centers that have been drawn to them. Such is the power of the automobile.
"you can see the super-high-res version that's 100 times more detailed than previous maps"
100 times larger, yes. More detailed? Uh, no. Holy pixels.
I was going with what the caption says from Vulcan, which is "The map offers more than 100 times the detail..."
For those wanting a per capita assessment. Chicago don't look so bad!
Density is the key to energy independence. I can walk to 98% of the places I need to go. Now if only there was still farm land near Chicago my food would also have a lower carbon footprint.
The Center for Neighrborhood Technology has such a map of per capita emissions . You can clearly see on it that the per capita emissions of the surrounding (read: suburban) counties are much higher than cook county.
I'll just hope people are smart enough not to jump to the quick conclusion, "high population density = bad." County sizes also vary from state to state - even using congressional districts would be more accurate (since they're drawn to fit a specific popuation size).
How much of that is hot air coming from the mouths of politicians in Cook County?
If more people had turned their lights off a coupel weeks ago, this whole CATASTROPHE could have been avoided.
Dopplerd,
If there were still farm land near Chicago, the area wouldn't achieve the same level of density. The effect would cancel out.
Vulcans are envolved in this? Well it must be correct because Vulcans are smart and they live long and prosper. I don't think I'd date one bacause they don't drink
The way the Vulcan Project gave out the numbers is total garbage!
I totaled up the amounts for NYC [which is 5 separate counties] & suburbs [including NJ] & got a total of 31.825 for the metro NYC area & 14.192 for NYC alone.
As Mark Twain said there are three kinds of lies:
Lies, Damned lies & Statistics.
These are statistics!
If you run their numbers against 2007 U.S. Census population estimates, Cook County ends up 85th out of 102 counties and third-best in the metro area (not counting Indiana or Wisconsin). Kane and McHenry do better, mostly because Cook's residential and commercial emissions per capita are quite a bit higher than theirs.
Weirdly, Kendall County has fewer transportation-related emissions per capita than any other county in the state, which seems wrong to me (unless that Oswego park-and-ride is really popular).
The worst offenders are places like Jasper County where Ameren has coal plants.
albamuth, that map is very interesting!
If the politicians don't kill us, the pollution will. awesome!!
Yeah, why have Vulcans doing this work? The Klingons have giant flared nostrils that are perfect for sniffing out emissions (see Episode 56).
Now where did I put my pocket protector?