This link was sent over to me by Derek.  It is a great read, and I thought one of the coolest things was seeing how much solar panels would generate on your house using Virtual Earth.  Some tips I had seen before, and others were brand new to me.

Also, a blatant plug for Derek’s band, Sun Tornado.  July 11th in Baltimore at Metro Gallery.

Enjoy,

greg

Use the Web to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

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Given the steady drumbeat of news about climate change, water shortages, food riots and high oil prices, many of us are pretty well-versed in the basics of protecting the environment.

What’s lacking, particularly for us tech-lovers, are the tools to help us live our on-grid, totally Wired lives with the smallest possible impact. And we do need some help. If everyone lived like North Americans, we’d need at least five planets to support our lifestyles.

Here are some online actions you can take to “plug in greener.”

This article is a wiki. Got extra advice? Log in and add it.

iHitchhike

Ride sharing is an effective way of reducing the impact of transportation on the environment, but it comes with two thorny problems: How do you a) find a car going your way and b) make sure that driver isn’t a psycho? The Facebook app, Carpool, or something like it, could eventually be the solution. By using your own social network to search out rides, it allows you to differentiate between your friends and creepy truckers, and if the app can gain some traction — which it hasn’t yet — you could be hitching a ride anywhere with your mouse-button index finger, not your thumb. Or getting paid to provide rides.

Drive the “Network Effect” of Carbon Footprints

Back in July of last year, Clive Thompson wrote, “Imagine if your daily consumption were part of your Facebook page — and broadcast to your friends by RSS feed…. You’d work harder to conserve so you don’t look like a jackass in front of your peers.” Well, that day has come with the Facebook Carbon Minder application. Get it, do your calculations, and start shaming your friends.

Another must-read is Katie Fehrenbacher’s article on earth2tech about the “Network Effect” of carbon footprints.

Calculate Solar-Payback Time for Your Home

Sungevity allows you to get your home fitted for solar panels. Using Microsoft’s Virtual Earth satellite imagery platform, it calculates not just how much power the panels would generate, but also how long it would take you to recoup your initial investment. This image is the app’s workup for the apartment building that I live in here in San Francisco.

Fly Green

Flying to Vegas this weekend? A new calculator from TerraPass and TRX will show you which airline has the lowest carbon emissions for any route in the world.

Stop Your Junk Mail

GreenDimes is a classic win-win. You, as a consumer, get a service that removes you from catalog mailing lists and cuts down on the amount of junk that lands in your mailbox. By making your life better, you also help the environment, because all those catalog are printed on paper, and you can bet most of it isn’t the nice, recycled stuff. The company claims to have stopped 3.5 million pounds of waste already.

Offset Your Blog’s CO2 Emissions

CO2Stats lets you track the carbon dioxide emissions of your website, blog or individual posting. Based on the traffic it receives, the company calculates the carbon footprint of the content and offsets that amount of emissions. They hope to pay for this scheme by selling advertising.

More than 1,000 sites have signed on, and even though the widget’s design is simple, it works, albeit with a fairly minor impact.

Buy Data-Hosting Powered by Renewable Energy

If offsetting the emissions from the traffic to your site isn’t enough for you, try out GreenestHost or AISO and purchase some solar-powered hosting.

Plot an Alternative Route to Work

If you need to get from here to there, walking or riding your bike has a smaller environmental impact than taking a motor vehicle. But if you’re a novice like me, you might not know the best route across your city. That’s where Bikely comes in, a website that allows grizzled bike messengers to let you in on their fastest routes. Then, just send that data to the handlebar-mounted GPS you built, and away you go. l The same goes for taking public transportation instead of dragging your 2,000 pound wheeled metal exoskeleton into the company parking lot. Google Transit tops the list if you’re in an urban environment and want hitch a ride on your city’s people transporters.

Add Your Own Tips Here

We know you’re out there scouring the internet for good tools too, so let us know what sites you find most useful for reducing your impact on the environment.