Turkey and all the trimmings: 2m tonnes of extra greenhouse gases
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- Nadrzędna kategoria: Guardian
- Kategoria: Polityka i obyczaje
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Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"
During the eating marathon of Christmas day, spare a thought for the effects of the over-consumption on the Earth. While we make merry and indulge in too much turkey, mince pies and wine, our planet has to live with the hangover of extra greenhouse gases.
Festive Britons will release almost 2m tonnes of extra carbon dioxide over the Christmas holidays, according to a new survey.
Scientists at the Institute of Physics calculated the extra energy used in roasting the perfect turkey, driving to see the relatives, watching television and opening the door to carol singers to work out the potential impact of a merry Christmas on climate change.
The biggest culprit is our fascination for Christmas lights: going overboard with brightly-lit Santa Claus, sleigh and reindeer on the roof of your house for 12 days might be a bad idea for reasons other than taste. A typical set of twinkling Christmas lights for every family would use up 3.5bn kilowatt-hours (KWh) of electricity, releasing 1.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
And with television schedules full of Christmas specials and seasonal repeats, Britons watch their favourite shows for an average of 30 hours over the festive week (up from an average of about 17 hours a week). According to the IoP, this is enough to consume an extra 61.5m KWh of electricity, generating more than 28,000 tonnes of CO2, the same amount released by almost 50 full return flights across the Atlantic in a Jumbo jet.
Cooking the turkey has a much smaller effect in comparison: last year we consumed 10m birds at a cost of 29m KWh and 13,500 tonnes of C02, enough to fill 2,695 hot-air balloons.
Trips to visit friends and family will release around 281,000 tonnes of C02 (assuming every family travels about 100 miles) and the extra cost of keeping your house warm when you open the doors to carol singers is 338 tonnes of C02.
On a more positive note, Christmas shopping seems to have its up side. As a nation, we burnt 134,100m calories Christmas shopping last year - enough exercise to burn off 725m mince pies.
Sam Rae, the scientist at the IoP who worked on the calculations as part of the celebrations for the centenary of some of Albert Einstein's most important discoveries, said: "In Einstein year we tried to show that physics comes into our everyday lives, and the festive season is no different. We're not saying don't celebrate it, but physics gives us some real excuses to get out of some of the more dreaded chores."
assume- zakładać, robić założenie
average- średni, średnio (statystycznie)
carbon dioxide- dwutlenek węgla
centenary- stulecie, setna rocznica
chores- harówka, robota, obowiązek
culprit- winowajca; przyczyna, wina
dreaded- przerażający
festive- świąteczny, uroczysty; wesoły
generate- generować (wytwarzać, produlkować)
impact- wpływ, uderzenie
indulge in- pozwalać sobie na
release- wypuszczać
seasonal repeat- sezonowa powtórka
television schedule- program telewizyjny
twinkle- migotać
work out- wypracować, rozwiązać
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