A new inventory of the Portland metropolitan area shows that the bulk of the region's greenhouse gases come from the production of stuff, not...
According to the inventory, manufacturing products and food, moving freight and managing waste produce an estimated 14.9 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually, or 48 percent of the emissions produced in the tri-county Portland area.Natural gas and fossil fuels account for 27 percent, and emissions from transit, cars and light trucks accounts make up 25 percent of the total.Oregon Metro, which conducted the inventory, says that these numbers were more or less in line with the national average (the Portland area has a slightly lower transportation impact, and a slightly higher materials impact). And this inventory actually underestimates the percentage of greenhouse gases that come from the area's appetite for goods and food, because it excludes international imports.This analysis is interesting because it highlights our lopsided thinking about climate change. The media tends to focus a lot on solutions like hybrid cars and CFLs, but transportation and energy use are relatively small parts of the problem.