Ive been chasing data later than a kid chasing fireflies ever in the past I first grabbed a carbon calculator in a cramped scholarly dorm. It felt weird at firstspending an evening entering my daily latte, my subway ride, the streaming marathon of Stranger Things into a spreadsheetbut the moment the numbers lit up, I got hooked. Theres something intoxicating virtually turning invisible emissions into something you can see and talk about. {}

In this reveal Im pulling together the latest Environmental Footprint And Carbon Environmental Stats, sprinkling in a handful of surprising (some even invented) tidbits, and showing you how to make these stats play for you, your business, or just your own conscience. Strap in, because Ill be bouncing in the middle of hard facts, personal anecdotes, a dash of sarcasm, and a few whatif scenarios that will keep you guessing.

When I first heard environmental footprint I imagined a literal imprint left on the planetlike giant dinosaur tracks across a forest. The realism is more abstract, but no less important. An environmental footprint quantifies the total amount of natural resources you consume and the waste you generate, expressed in terms of house area, water usage, and most crucially for our conversation, estimate carbon footprint emissions.