I have decided to entitle this post "Carbon Arse Print" because I cannot see the point in calculating my households carbon footprint.

For those of you that wish to carry out this exercise, here is the Irish Calculator and here is the UK Calculator

When I was filling in all the information on these websites, I was amused on the level of detail that they were requiring, for example,

• "How many light bulbs in the house?"
• "What is the energy rating of your washing machine ?"
• "How many kms/miles do you travel by public transport every week?"

Unknowingly I began to answer these questions as best I could, I even got off my arse and looked at the washing machine for an indication of its energy rating, but to no avail. This is when the light bulb, a non energy saving one, went off in my head "Whats the feckin point of doing this?", there is no point, its all bollocks.

The reason why governments wants the ordinary person to calculate his/her carbon footprint is to deflect attention from their policies and strategies on waste management,traffic congestion, and the hefty profits that Bord Gais and the ESB make every year, whilst being semi-state companies.

For feck sake my green bin is only collected once a month,when I remember to put it out, everytime I go to the recycling bottle bank, its full.

Whats even more annoying is the fact that the largest polluters in the world, USA, Russia, China did'nt even sign up to the Kyoto agreement, so why the f*#k so the ordinary joe public be shamed in calculating his/her carbon footprint?. Is it going to be the topic of conversation down the pub on a weekend ?, I doubt it.

Anyway even if you did reduce your CO2 would you be any better off financially?. No most of the gas companies are putting prices up by 20-25%, so you use less and you still pay more, whats the feckin point?.

What does being "Carbon Neutral" mean?, the only way I can see anyone not contributing CO2 is by being dead, and a long time dead, as I'm sure decompostion must add some methane to the atmosphere.

This is a scam on a global level for someone else to make money as our expense. Carbon Emissions credits are traded on the ECX on a daily basis, thereby enabling business and Government to buy offsets, the cost of which will eventually find its way into your pocket.

Energy saving light bulbs are more expensive than ordinary light bulbs, in Ireland we pay a recycle tax on any electrical goods that we buy, even if the goods are at the highest energy rating, again showing that someone, somewhere is making money out of this.

If Governments want us to lower our CO2 emissions, they could, make energy efficient goods cheaper and make recycling easier for all.