per capita. Brookings has issued a report ranking 100 metro areas on their carbon footprints. I found it interesting that the bottom five were all either in or close to the good old Hoosier homeland. Of course, I shouldn't get too high and mighty as I sit here in Madison, where we are apparently 81st. Oops, so much for being a green city.
I haven't read the entire report, but I would be interested to see how certain elements were handled. The article in the NYT mentions the effects of centralized transportation hubs (e.g. ports and railway centers), but I would also question the validity in comparing some of the smaller Metros to the very large ones. For example, it seems quite likely to me that there is a fixed cost (in carbon footprint) of creating, transporting and providing the infrastructure, goods and services to the population of any area. It would seem, however, that with exceptionally high density (e.g. New York or LA) that the incremental cost for additional residents should be significantly lower than for a smaller metro. I think this is just another example of the Brookings Institute's West Coast Bias, which is promulgated by employees who are trying to get even at the college sports media for always dissing the PAC-10.
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This story was picked up by the State Journal today as well.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/288701
Well perhaps you should have read the report.
It is titled "Per Capita carbon emissions from transportation and residential energy use, 2005"
The majority of the media cannot report on the facts correctly. If one was to consider that 95% of Honolulu's food, construction materials etc are imported, then indeed, it would be near the bottom.
This sort of report is useless, and even more so when incorrectly reported and distorted....but this is what happens when the media reports "Press Releases" as news.
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