Do You Know the CO2 Emissions For...

In today's wired and globalized world, every action you take results in carbon emissions.

Sure you can do home improvements, eat organic, drive a prius and feel good about yourself. But what about the little everyday things?

Do you know the Co2 emissions for an email or a Google search, a tweet or Facebook update? Or when you eat a cheeseburger or get a cup of coffee?

Do you know how much CO2 America emits, or how much an average person in America emits?

And are your emissions better or worse than the global average? Well, let's find out.

Google Search: According to the official Google Blog, one search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2.

As a comparison, consider that driving an average car for 0.6 miles generates greenhouse gasses equivalent to a thousand searches.

Twitter: Every tweet is responsible for 0.02 grams of CO2. Note that a bigger percentage of Twitter users access it via mobile devices which use less energy than a computer.

On the minus side, people spend a lot more time on Twitter reading tweets and checking for new replies or messages.

Facebook: Users spending more time on the site is an even bigger problem for Facebook, because a big part of their energy comes from coal power plants. Facebook generates 13.6m tonnes of CO2 per year.

But a Facebook user can neutralize the impact completely with a facebook app and a $4 annual subscription. The app tracks your facebook use, and the $4 per year you pay is used by a Danish company to buy equivalent carbon credits.

There are so many more things that can be tackled individually on the web, like Skype (yearly 24m tonnes of CO2 emissions) or emails (4 grams/email).

On the face of it, food and drinks don't seem that big a deal. But where it comes from makes a big difference, and even an apple a day can make the world a very dangerous place.

If you consider an apple from your own garden as zero carbon, the one which you get in a supermarket clocks in at 80g of CO2, and an imported one generates 150g.

Locally sourced bottled water generates 110g, while those bottled elsewhere are responsible for 160g and an imported one counts for 215g.

A large cappucino counts for 235g and a large latte for 340g. One cup of black tea or coffee where only the exact amount of water needed is boiled would be 21g, but it jumps to 53g when you add the milk.

What about local milk? Well, yes... but the methane emissions from the cows are a problem.

One burger generates 2.5kg, and it's not really possible to make it 100% local or cut down on the emissions in other ways.

When it comes to food and drinks, the only way to reduce emissions is to restrict the diet to local and sustainable produce which generate less emissions.

Granted that driving a powerful SUV is a whole lot more fun than a prius, and air travel is much faster than poking along on a dusty roadtrip.

But here's the thing - Driving a prius for 1 mile generates 270g CO2, while an average car generates 540g.

A New York-Miami flight generates 193kg per person, while a New York-LA flight generates 438kg/person.

Use public transport where possible. If you must drive, use hybrid vehicles. If you must fly, then get the equivalent carbon credits to compensate.

There are a couple of ways to look at the total Co2 emissions a country is responsible for.

One way is to measure the absolute total, in which case China is responsible for 23.33% of the world's total Co2 emissions.

The U.S. comes in second with 18.11%, followed by the EU (14.04%), India (5.78%) and Russia (5.67%). See the full list here.

Another way to look at it would be the per capita Co2 emitted. The average American generates about 19 metric tons of CO2 per year, while the global average is 4 tons.

You can see the full list of all countries here.

Both methods (absolute and per capita) have to be taken into consideration to get some perspective on which countries need to urgently reduce their personal emissions.

In a nutshell, developed nations and high-population density areas are the worst offenders.

If you want to know where you stand on your personal Co2 emissions, you can use the calculators provided by Yahoo, STI, Terrapass or MyFootprint.org.

Listing the carbon emissions for cheeseburgers and Google searches may sound a bit daft.

But the fact is that we live in a culture of consumption fueled by technology that needs carbon emissions.

The only way it can be sustained is by looking at every action we take everyday, and figuring out a way to reduce the associated emissions or compensate for it.

Besides, just knowing how much Co2 your next action is going to generate makes you think twice, doesn't it?

P.S.: I'd dearly like to know how much CO2 is generated on average at Hubpages when someone writes a hub.