Mike Cero's Carbon Challenge

Mercer Island City Councilman Mike Cero has always been a strong supporter of the environment, especially where it really counts at the local level.  On every issue, from HOV lanes to preserving parks to reducing airport noise, he is on the side of preserving quality of life.

He's also the the first local official I've seen who is brave enough to publicly talk about his own family's carbon footprint (in Nancy Hilliard's column in this week's Mercer Island Reporter):

From www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html,  I calculated [my family of five] at 120,692 pounds, which doesn’t seem too bad given that the average U.S. household of two is 41,500 pounds. According to www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator, we create 14.3 tons, double the average family of about 7.5 tons. At www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator, I found my family of five at 78 tons...

Taking Mike's challenge for my own family, I was disappointed to see that my household footprint is higher than his:

I'm not sure why Mike beats me, but I suspect that it might be due to my frequent business trips.  I'm going to start doing more to cut down on travel.

In honor of this Saturday's Leap for Green event at Mercer Island Community Center, I think it would be great to see the rest of our public officials follow Mike's lead and publish their own carbon footprints.