title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed is known for portraying PC "Fancy" Smith in "Z-Cars", Augustus in the 1976 BBC television production of "I, Claudius", King Richard IV in the first series of "Blackadder", Prince Vultan in "Flash Gordon", Bustopher Jones and Old Deuteronomy in the 1981 original London production of "Cats" at the New London Theatre, Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter in "Henry V", Boss Nass in "" and the voice of Clayton in Disney's "Tarzan".


title: Brian Blessed

text: In 2016, Blessed was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the arts and charity.


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed was born on 9 October 1936 at Montagu Hospital in Mexborough, Yorkshire, the son of William Blessed, a socialist coal miner at Hickleton Main Colliery (and himself the son of a coal miner) and cricketer for the Yorkshire second team, and Hilda (née Wall). Blessed's father died aged 99; his mother died aged 87. Blessed's great-great-grandfather, Jabez Blessed, was the father of 13 children and worked as a china and glass dealer in Brigg, Lincolnshire; many of Blessed's relatives hail from Brigg.


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed went to Bolton on Dearne Secondary Modern School, and completed his national service in the RAF Regiment before enrolling at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.


title: Brian Blessed

text: One of Blessed's earliest roles was that of PC "Fancy" Smith in the BBC television series "Z-Cars", between 1962 and 1965. In 1966, he appeared in a production of "Incident at Vichy" at the Phoenix Theatre in London. Also in 1966, he was offered the titular role of The Doctor in BBC's sci-fi drama, "Doctor Who", to take over from William Hartnell, but had to turn it down due to conflicting projects. In 1967, he played Porthos in a 10-part BBC adaptation of "The Three Musketeers". Blessed also had minor roles in cult TV series such as "The Avengers" (1967, 1969) and the original "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)" (1969). He interpreted the role of King Mark of Cornwall in the HTV television series "Arthur of the Britons" (1972-1973). He appeared as William Woodcock in the Yorkshire Television series "Boy Dominic" (1974). He played Caesar Augustus in the BBC Two drama series "I, Claudius" (1976), Vargas in the "Blake's 7" episode Cygnus Alpha (1978) and Basileos in "The Aphrodite Inheritance" (1979). He hosted a docudrama on the life of Johann Sebastian Bach called "The Joy of Bach" (1978), in which he also played Bach in a number of scenes.


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed also appeared in two episodes of the British science fiction television series "". He played scientist Dr. Rowland Cabot in the 1975 episode "Death's Other Dominion" and as Mentor in the 1976 episode "The Metamorph".


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed played Long John Silver in the 10-part serial "Return to Treasure Island" (1986), King Yrcanos in the "Doctor Who" serial "Mindwarp" (1986), General Yevlenko in the mini-series "War and Remembrance" (1988), and Lord Loxley, the father of Robin Hood, in the Hollywood film "" (1991).


title: Brian Blessed

text: In 1981, Blessed appeared in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, "Cats", as both Old Deuteronomy and Bustopher Jones, for the original West End theatre production.


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed has appeared in a number of Shakespearean roles on both stage and screen, including four of the five Shakespeare films directed by Kenneth Branagh: as the Duke of Exeter in "Henry V" (1989), Antonio in "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993), the Ghost of Hamlet's Father in "Hamlet" (1996), and both Duke Frederick and Duke Senior in "As You Like It" (2006).


title: Brian Blessed

text: In comedies, Blessed portrayed Prince Vultan in the film "Flash Gordon" (1980); the mad, comical figure of Richard IV in the first series of "The Black Adder" (1983), a role Blessed has claimed to be one of his most cherished; and Spiro Halikiopoulos in the TV mini-series "My Family and Other Animals" (1987), a BBC adaptation of Gerald Durrell's book by the same name. Blessed has joked that he was due to appear in "Blackadder II" (1986) as Elizabeth I, but was unavailable for filming. In 1989 he made an appearance in the comedy/drama "Minder", as Detective Inspector Freddie Dyer of the Serious Crime Squad in the episode "The Last Video Show."


title: Brian Blessed

text: In 1997, Blessed portrayed Squire Western in the of Henry Fielding's 1749 comic novel "Tom Jones". He later recalled accidentally punching Peter Capaldi whilst filming and said of the event, "I thought I'd killed the poor bastard."


title: Brian Blessed

text: In 1999, Blessed provided both the voice and live-action reference for the CGI character Boss Nass in "", and also provided the voice of the villainous hunter Clayton in Disney's animated feature film "Tarzan", a role he later reprised in the video game based on the film and in the critically acclaimed "Kingdom Hearts" in 2002. He voiced "Sir Morris" in the 1999 cartoon series "The Big Knights". He read the story "The White City" for the album series "Late Night Tales", recording it in four parts released over four albums, and was also the voice of Jean Valjean in Focus on the Family Radio Theatre's audio adaptation of Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables". Blessed was one of the narrators for "Story Teller", a children's magazine partwork series in the 1980s. He has further provided vocal links for the Sony-Award-winning Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio, and introduced advertisements for Orange mobile phones.


title: Brian Blessed

text: In 2002, under the direction of Royal Shakespeare Company director Adrian Noble, he originated the role of Baron Bomburst for the stage musical version of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". From December 2005 to January 2006, Blessed headlined the Christmas pantomime production of "Peter Pan", alongside CBBC presenter Kirsten O'Brien, at Ipswich's Regent Theatre. From 2007 to 2008, he appeared in the same play as Captain Hook at the Grove Theatre in Dunstable; he reprised the role for the Christmas 2008 season at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon. For Christmas 2006, he presented a production of "Cinderella" for Virgin Radio, starring David Tennant, Thandie Newton and others.


title: Brian Blessed

text: Since October 2008, Blessed has presented the English-language dub of the Japanese TV game show "Unbeatable Banzuke" on Challenge, under the pseudonym "Banzuke Brian". He was the narrator of the Sky 1 series "Crash Test Dummies", starring Steve Marsh and Dan Wright. In animation, he has provided the voices of Bob in "Kika & Bob" (2008) and Grampy Rabbit in "Peppa Pig" (2004–present).


title: Brian Blessed

text: Following a Facebook campaign, satellite navigation manufacturer TomTom recorded Blessed's voice for use in its products; he has been available as a voice command option since October 2010. In September 2010, Blessed recorded the voice of Great Sultan Shahryār for "Sheherazade, or The Princess, the Pirate and the Baboon!", an album of children's stories set to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's classical music composition "Scheherazade", co-starring Rory Bremner and released as an instalment of "Grandma Dingley's Ingeniously Musical Tales" in 2011.


title: Brian Blessed

text: In 2018, Blessed voiced German military engineer Konrad Kyeser in the open-world medieval RPG, "". He voiced the megalomaniacal Red Ivan in the 2021 base building game "".


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed has attempted to climb Mount Everest three times without supplemental oxygen, reaching heights of in 1993 and in 1996, but without reaching the summit.


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed has reached the tops of Aconcagua in Argentina and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and has undertaken an expedition into the jungles of Venezuela, during which he survived a plane crash.


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed is the oldest man to have reached the North Magnetic Pole on foot, where he says he punched a polar bear on the nose.


title: Brian Blessed

text: In 2009, Blessed featured in the song "Army of the Damned" from the album "Beneath the Veiled Embrace" by British power metal band Pythia, reciting the poem "Suicide in the Trenches" by Siegfried Sassoon. Blessed also appeared on their 2014 album "Shadows of a Broken Past".


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed served as President of the Television and Radio Industries Club (TRIC) from 2007 to 2008 and presented the 2008 TRIC Awards at Grosvenor House, London.


title: Brian Blessed

text: In 2004, Blessed appeared on and won an episode of "Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes", impersonating the opera singer Luciano Pavarotti. He appeared as an expert and commentator on the satellite channel UKTV G2 during the 2006 World Cup. Blessed also appeared on "A Question of Sport" in 2006 and 2011, and was a guest host on the BBC's satirical quiz show "Have I Got News for You" in May 2008 and April 2013 (also making a surprise appearance in the 2008 Christmas special).


title: Brian Blessed

text: Downloadable content for the computer game "War of the Roses" featured narration by Blessed. In 2013, he received the Spirit of Hammer Award at the "Metal Hammer" magazine's Golden Gods Awards.


title: Brian Blessed

text: On 14 August 2014, Blessed was the subject of an episode of the BBC documentary series "Who Do You Think You Are?", tracing the lives of his ancestors.


title: Brian Blessed

text: In October 2016 the BBC broadcast a 3-hour compilation of interviews with Blessed, "Brian Blessed's Radio Adventures", featuring interviews with him where he discusses his life and career.


title: Brian Blessed

text: In 1963, Blessed, then in his late twenties, assisted a mother giving birth in Richmond Park, London. He delivered the healthy baby girl, then bit through the umbilical cord. He later recounted "I was covered in blood, my shirt was covered in blood, I was wrapping her, wiping her, [saying] 'it's alright, darling'... And I was licking the baby's face."


title: Brian Blessed

text: In 1978, Blessed married actress Hildegarde Neil. They both live in Windlesham, Surrey. Their daughter, Rosalind, is an actress.


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed owns several dogs and is a patron of the charity Pet Respect. In 2011 he became a patron for Hopefield Animal Sanctuary in Brentwood, Essex.


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed suffered a nervous breakdown at age 18. He eventually recovered with the support of friends, family and his speech teacher.


title: Brian Blessed

text: On 19 January 2015, Blessed collapsed on stage during a performance of "King Lear" with the Guildford Shakespeare Company, in which his daughter Rosalind was also acting. He received medical attention from a doctor in the audience and returned to the stage to complete the play 20 minutes later. On 30 January 2015, it was announced that Blessed had been "compelled to withdraw" from the production on the advice of his heart specialist. He has been fitted with a pacemaker.


title: Brian Blessed

text: He has honorary degrees from the University of Bradford (awarded July 2003) and Sheffield Hallam University (awarded 2004) and has also been awarded the honorary title of "Official Shoutsperson" by the University of York's Douglas Adams Society.


title: Brian Blessed

text: In 2011, the student union at the University of York voted to name a new study area the "Brian Blessed Centre for Quiet Study". The same year, Blessed was nominated for the post of Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, following a campaign by graduates. He was later awarded Honorary Membership of the Cambridge Union in recognition of his nomination.


title: Brian Blessed

text: Blessed was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to the arts and charity.


title: FaceTime

text: FaceTime is a proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple Inc. FaceTime is available on supported iOS mobile devices running iOS 4 and later and Mac computers that run and later. FaceTime supports any iOS device with a forward-facing camera and any Mac computer equipped with a FaceTime Camera. FaceTime Audio, an audio-only version, is available on any iOS device that supports iOS 7 or newer, and any Mac with a forward-facing camera running OS X 10.9.2 and later.


title: FaceTime

text: Since the release of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, non-Apple systems can be used to participate in FaceTime calls using a web client.


title: FaceTime

text: Apple bought the "FaceTime" name from FaceTime Communications, which changed its name to Actiance in January 2011. On June 7, 2010, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced FaceTime in conjunction with the iPhone 4 in a keynote speech at the 2010 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Support for the fourth generation iPod Touch (the first model of iPod Touch equipped with cameras) was announced in conjunction with the device's release on September 8, 2010.


title: FaceTime

text: On March 2, 2011, FaceTime support was announced for the newly introduced iPad 2, which had forward- and rear-facing cameras.


title: FaceTime

text: On February 24, 2011, FaceTime left beta and was listed in the Mac App Store for US$0.99. Apple claims that it intended to provide the application free of charge, however, a provision of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (2002) bars companies from providing an unadvertised new feature of an already-sold product without enduring "onerous accounting measures". The US$0.99 beta is no longer available for download from Apple. FaceTime is included for free in macOS from (10.7) onwards and iOS.


title: FaceTime

text: AT&T allowed customers to use FaceTime as long as they were tiered, but blocked the application from working for customers with unlimited data plans. They were brought before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for net neutrality violations.


title: FaceTime

text: In May 2011, it was found that FaceTime would work seamlessly over 3G on all iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch models that supported it. Even though FaceTime worked only over 3G at that time, it now supports 4G LTE calls on networks all over the world, availability being limited to operators' GSM plans.


title: FaceTime

text: In 2018, Apple added group video and audio support to FaceTime which can support up to 32 people in iOS 12 and macOS Mojave.


title: FaceTime

text: On June 7, 2021, during Apple's WWDC Keynote, it was announced that FaceTime will be made available for Android and Windows users via the web. A new feature called SharePlay was announced for FaceTime on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey at the same event. It will let users on iPhone, iPad, and Mac share music, video, or their screen with people in the call. Apple stated that the feature uses an API that can be enabled on any media service and SharePlay is slated to support Apple Music, the Apple TV app (including Apple TV+), Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Paramount+, TikTok, Twitch and several other media sources at launch.


title: FaceTime

text: FaceTime works by establishing a connection between two supported devices. Most Apple devices (such as iPhones, iPads and Macs) introduced after 2011 support FaceTime. FaceTime is currently incompatible with non-Apple devices or any other video calling services. Mac models introduced in 2011 have high-definition video FaceTime, which devices use automatically when both ends have a FaceTime HD camera.


title: FaceTime

text: At launch, unlike Mac OS X's iChat, FaceTime did not support group conferencing. The application allowed a one-on-one video chat—only two people could talk at once. If a second user called and the user answered, the video chat with the previous user would end and a new video session began with the second caller. In iPhone, if a phone call was pending and the user attempts to answer, the video call ends and the phone call began with the next user. Support for group video conferencing was added with the release of iOS 12, allowing up to 32 people to participate in a video call simultaneously.


title: FaceTime

text: Incoming notifications on iOS devices are shown during a FaceTime call, but if they are opened, the video will be temporarily paused until the user is back in the FaceTime app.


title: FaceTime

text: On the iPhone, a user can activate FaceTime during a phone call by pressing the FaceTime button or initiated FaceTime from their call history or the Contacts application. iOS 7 and newer also provide a separate FaceTime app, as there always has been on Apple's non-telephony devices: iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac.


title: FaceTime

text: Until the release of iOS 6, FaceTime required a WiFi connection to work. From iOS 6 onwards, FaceTime for the iPhone and iPad has supported FaceTime calls over cellular networks (3G or LTE) provided the carrier enabled it, which by mid-2013 virtually all carriers worldwide have allowed. FaceTime Audio uses about three megabytes of data for every five minutes of conversation, with FaceTime Video using significantly more. Cellular talk time/minutes are not used after switching from a voice call to a FaceTime call.


title: FaceTime

text: FaceTime calls can be placed from supported devices to any phone number or email address that is registered to the FaceTime service. A single email address can be registered to multiple devices and a call placed to that address rings all devices simultaneously.


title: FaceTime

text: The FaceTime protocol is based on numerous open industry standards but is not interoperable with non-Apple products. FaceTime's lack of interoperability makes customers dependent on Apple and unable to switch away from Apple products.


title: FaceTime

text: Upon the launch of the iPhone 4, Jobs stated that Apple would immediately start working with standards bodies to make the FaceTime protocol an "open industry standard". While the protocols are open standards, Apple's FaceTime service requires a client-side certificate.


title: FaceTime

text: FaceTime calls are protected by end-to-end encryption so that only the sender and receiver can access them. Apple cannot decrypt this data.


title: FaceTime

text: Compared to most SIP implementations, Facetime adds techniques that enhance performance at the cost of breaking interoperability: port multiplexing, SDP minimization and SDP compression.


title: FaceTime

text: A new audio-only version of FaceTime, named FaceTime Audio, was announced during the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote speech on June 10, 2013, and released with iOS 7 on September 18, 2013. As an audio-only version of FaceTime, it effectively makes the protocol into a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), that competes with other mainstream providers in the field, including Skype (Microsoft).


title: FaceTime

text: Based on the same AAC-LD audio protocol, the service provides high-quality audio. The iOS 7 betas limited FaceTime Audio to calls placed on a Wi-Fi network (the same original limitation of the video version of FaceTime), but the final release has removed that restriction to allow it to work over 3G and LTE data connections, as is the case with most carriers and plans with regard to FaceTime with video. Like the video version, FaceTime Audio is currently only available between Apple devices on iOS 7 and later. FaceTime streaming over cellular data is unavailable for the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2. Apple Watches running watchOS 5 or later can also access a limited version of FaceTime Audio through Walkie-Talkie, which only allows push-to-talk calls.


title: FaceTime

text: , FaceTime was not enabled on devices bought in the United Arab Emirates possibly due to regulations in this country that restrict IP-based communications. FaceTime is made available for iPhones in United Arab Emirates upon updating iOS 13.6. In addition, iPhone and iPad (Cellular models) devices bought in mainland China have FaceTime Audio, Group FaceTime and the ability to create and join FaceTime links via the FaceTime app disabled, while FaceTime Video is available. Devices bought outside these countries support both video and audio versions of FaceTime. Although Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait originally disabled FaceTime on the iPhone 4, they later re-enabled the feature through a carrier update for existing phone owners, and made it pre-enabled on any newly purchased iPhone. In March 2018, FaceTime was made available for iPhones in Saudi Arabia upon updating to iOS 11.3, and in August 2019, FaceTime was made available for iPhones in Pakistan upon updating to iOS 12.4.


title: FaceTime

text: As of April 16, 2014, FaceTime ceased working on earlier versions of iOS which had previously supported it (iOS 4 and later), due to the client-side certificate used to authenticate a genuine Apple device with FaceTime servers (amongst other uses) expiring on that date. Apple chose not to release an update to this certificate for all devices for which a newer major iOS version (with a new, valid certificate) was available. Apple did release a minor update, to the certificate only, for all OS X versions which could run FaceTime, and also for the 4th generation iPod Touch, the only iOS device which could run FaceTime but could not run the then-latest iOS 7. The result of this policy was that almost all iOS users had to update the iOS version on their devices if they wished to continue using FaceTime.


title: FaceTime

text: On January 28, 2019, a bug was discovered in the FaceTime app that allowed users to eavesdrop on other users without their knowledge through an exploit. It was later discovered the video feed could be enabled without the other users' acceptance. Apple said in a statement that it would release a fix for the exploit shortly, disabling Group FaceTime for the time being. The bug was named "FacePalm" by security researchers, and affects iOS devices running FaceTime on iOS 12.1 or Mac computers running macOS Mojave 10.14.1. On February 7, Apple fixed the FaceTime vulnerabilities in iOS 12.1.4 and a Supplemental Update for macOS Mojave 10.14.3.


title: FaceTime

text: Although the bug gained international attention on January 28, 2019, the bug was found much earlier by Arizona high school student Grant Thompson. He and his mother tried for more than a week to warn Apple about the problem through Facebook and Twitter after discovering the bug on January 20, without receiving answers.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: In statistics, the 68–95–99.7 rule, also known as the empirical rule, is a shorthand used to remember the percentage of values that lie within


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: an interval estimate in a normal distribution: 68%, 95%, and 99.7% of the values lie within one, two, and three standard deviations of the mean, respectively.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: In mathematical notation, these facts can be expressed as follows, where Pr() is the probability function, Χ is an observation from a normally distributed random variable, "μ" (mu) is the mean of the distribution, and "σ" (sigma) is its standard deviation:


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: In the empirical sciences, the so-called three-sigma rule of thumb (or 3σ rule) expresses a conventional heuristic that nearly all values are taken to lie within three standard deviations of the mean, and thus it is empirically useful to treat 99.7% probability as near certainty.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: In the social sciences, a result may be considered "significant" if its confidence level is of the order of a two-sigma effect (95%), while in particle physics, there is a convention of a five-sigma effect (99.99994% confidence) being required to qualify as a discovery.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: A weaker three-sigma rule can be derived from Chebyshev's inequality, stating that even for non-normally distributed variables, at least 88.8% of cases should fall within properly calculated three-sigma intervals. For unimodal distributions, the probability of being within the interval is at least 95% by the Vysochanskij–Petunin inequality. There may be certain assumptions for a distribution that force this probability to be at least 98%.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: These numerical values "68%, 95%, 99.7%" come from the cumulative distribution function of the normal distribution.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: For example, Φ(2) ≈ 0.9772, or Pr("X" ≤ "μ" + 2"σ") ≈ 0.9772, corresponding to a prediction interval of (1 − (1 − 0.97725)·2) = 0.9545 = 95.45%.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: This is not a symmetrical interval – this is merely the probability that an observation is less than "μ" + 2"σ". To compute the probability that an observation is within two standard deviations of the mean (small differences due to rounding):


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: This is related to confidence interval as used in statistics: formula_3 is approximately a 95% confidence interval when formula_4 is the average of a sample of size formula_5.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: The "68–95–99.7 rule" is often used to quickly get a rough probability estimate of something, given its standard deviation, if the population is assumed to be normal. It is also used as a simple test for outliers if the population is assumed normal, and as a normality test if the population is potentially not normal.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: To pass from a sample to a number of standard deviations, one first computes the deviation, either the error or residual depending on whether one knows the population mean or only estimates it. The next step is standardizing (dividing by the population standard deviation), if the population parameters are known, or studentizing (dividing by an estimate of the standard deviation), if the parameters are unknown and only estimated.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: To use as a test for outliers or a normality test, one computes the size of deviations in terms of standard deviations, and compares this to expected frequency. Given a sample set, one can compute the studentized residuals and compare these to the expected frequency: points that fall more than 3 standard deviations from the norm are likely outliers (unless the sample size is significantly large, by which point one expects a sample this extreme), and if there are many points more than 3 standard deviations from the norm, one likely has reason to question the assumed normality of the distribution. This holds ever more strongly for moves of 4 or more standard deviations.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: One can compute more precisely, approximating the number of extreme moves of a given magnitude or greater by a Poisson distribution, but simply, if one has multiple 4 standard deviation moves in a sample of size 1,000, one has strong reason to consider these outliers or question the assumed normality of the distribution.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: For example, a 6"σ" event corresponds to a chance of about two parts per billion. For illustration, if events are taken to occur daily, this would correspond to an event expected every 1.4 million years. This gives a simple normality test: if one witnesses a 6"σ" in daily data and significantly fewer than 1 million years have passed, then a normal distribution most likely does not provide a good model for the magnitude or frequency of large deviations in this respect.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: In "", Nassim Nicholas Taleb gives the example of risk models according to which the Black Monday crash would correspond to a 36-"σ" event:


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: the occurrence of such an event should instantly suggest that the model is flawed, i.e. that the process under consideration is not satisfactorily modeled by a normal distribution. Refined models should then be considered, e.g. by the introduction of stochastic volatility. In such discussions it is important to be aware of the problem of the gambler's fallacy, which states that a single observation of a rare event does not contradict that the event is in fact rare. It is the observation of a plurality of purportedly rare events that increasingly undermines the hypothesis that they are rare, i.e. the validity of the assumed model. A proper modelling of this process of gradual loss of confidence in a hypothesis would involve the designation of prior probability not just to the hypothesis itself but to all possible alternative hypotheses. For this reason, statistical hypothesis testing works not so much by confirming a hypothesis considered to be likely, but by refuting hypotheses considered unlikely.


title: 68–95–99.7 rule

text: Because of the exponential tails of the normal distribution, odds of higher deviations decrease very quickly. From the rules for normally distributed data for a daily event:


title: Cursive

text: Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionality and modern-day usage across languages and regions; being used both publicly in artistic and formal documents as well as in private communication. Formal cursive is generally joined, but casual cursive is a combination of joins and pen lifts. The writing style can be further divided as "looped", "italic" or "connected".


title: Cursive

text: The cursive method is used with many alphabets due to infrequent pen lifting and beliefs that it increases writing speed. Despite this belief, more elaborate or ornamental styles of writing can be slower to reproduce. In some alphabets, many or all letters in a word are connected, sometimes making a word one single complex stroke.


title: Cursive

text: A study of gradeschool children in 2013 discovered that the speed of their cursive writing is the same as their print writing, regardless of which handwriting the child had learnt first.


title: Cursive

text: Cursive is a style of penmanship in which the symbols of the language are written in a conjoined and/or "flowing" manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster. This writing style is distinct from "print-script" using block letters, in which the letters of a word are unconnected and in Roman/Gothic letter-form rather than joined-up script. Not all cursive copybooks join all letters: formal cursive is generally joined, but casual cursive is a combination of joins and pen lifts. In the Arabic, Syriac, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets, many or all letters in a word are connected (while others must not), sometimes making a word one single complex stroke. In Hebrew cursive and Roman cursive, the letters are not connected. In Maharashtra, there was a version of cursive called 'Modi' to write Marathi language.


title: Cursive

text: Ligature is writing the letters of words with lines connecting the letters so that one does not have to pick up the pen or pencil between letters. Commonly some of the letters are written in a looped manner to facilitate the connections. In common printed Greek texts, the modern small letter fonts are called "cursive" (as opposed to uncial) though the letters do not connect.


title: Cursive

text: In "looped cursive" penmanship, some ascenders and descenders have loops which provide for joins. This is generally what people refer to when they say "cursive".


title: Cursive

text: "Cursive italic" penmanship—derived from chancery cursive—uses non-looped joins or no joins. In italic cursive, there are no joins from g, j, q, or y, and a few other joins are discouraged. Italic penmanship became popular in the 15th-century Italian Renaissance. The term "italic" as it relates to handwriting is not to be confused with italic typed letters. Many, but not all, letters in the handwriting of the Renaissance were joined, as most are today in cursive italic.


title: Cursive

text: The origins of the cursive method are associated with practical advantages of writing speed and infrequent pen-lifting to accommodate the limitations of the quill. Quills are fragile, easily broken, and will spatter unless used properly. They also run out of ink faster than most contemporary writing utensils. Steel dip pens followed quills; they were sturdier, but still had some limitations. The individuality of the provenance of a document (see Signature) was a factor also, as opposed to machine font.


title: Cursive

text: The term "cursive" derives from Middle French "cursif" from Medieval Latin "cursivus", which literally means "running". This term in turn derives from Latin "currere" ("to run, hasten"). Although the use of cursive appeared to be on the decline, it now seems to be coming back into use.


title: Cursive

text: (also known in Bengali as "professional writing") the letters are more likely to be more curvy in appearance than in standard Bengali handwriting. Also, the horizontal supporting bar on each letter ("matra") runs continuously through the entire word, unlike in standard handwriting. This cursive handwriting often used by literature experts differs in appearance from the standard Bengali alphabet as it is free hand writing, where sometimes the alphabets are complex and appear different from the standard handwriting.


title: Cursive

text: "Roman cursive" is a form of handwriting (or a script) used in ancient Rome and to some extent into the Middle Ages. It is customarily divided into old (or ancient) cursive, and new cursive. Old Roman cursive, also called majuscule cursive and capitalis cursive, was the everyday form of handwriting used for writing letters, by merchants writing business accounts, by schoolchildren learning the Latin alphabet, and even by emperors issuing commands. New Roman, also called minuscule cursive or later cursive, developed from old cursive. It was used from approximately the 3rd century to the 7th century, and uses letter forms that are more recognizable to modern eyes; "a", "b", "d", and "e" have taken a more familiar shape, and the other letters are proportionate to each other rather than varying wildly in size and placement on a line.


title: Cursive

text: The Greek alphabet has had several cursive forms in the course of its development. In antiquity, a cursive form of handwriting was used in writing on papyrus. It employed slanted and partly connected letter forms as well as many ligatures. Some features of this handwriting were later adopted into Greek minuscule, the dominant form of handwriting in the medieval and early modern era. In the 19th and 20th centuries, an entirely new form of cursive Greek, more similar to contemporary Western European cursive scripts, was developed.


title: Cursive

text: Cursive writing was used in English before the Norman conquest. Anglo-Saxon Charters typically include a boundary clause written in Old English in a cursive script. A cursive handwriting style—secretary hand—was widely used for both personal correspondence and official documents in England from early in the 16th century.


title: Cursive

text: Cursive handwriting developed into something approximating its current form from the 17th century, but its use was neither uniform, nor standardized either in England itself or elsewhere in the British Empire. In the English colonies of the early 17th century, most of the letters are clearly separated in the handwriting of William Bradford, though a few were joined as in a cursive hand. In England itself, Edward Cocker had begun to introduce a version of the French "ronde" style, which was then further developed and popularized throughout the British Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries as round hand by John Ayers and William Banson.


title: Cursive

text: Today there is no standardized teaching script stipulated in the various national curriculums for schools in the United Kingdom, only that one font style needs to be used consistently throughout the school. In both the Cursive and the Continuous Cursive writing styles, letters are created through joining lines and curve shapes in a particular way. Once pupils have learnt how to clearly form single letters, they are taught how single letters can be joined to form a flowing script.


title: Cursive

text: Whether Cursive or Continuous Cursive is to be favoured remains a subject of debate. While many schools in the United Kingdom are opting to teach Continuous Cursive throughout the year groups, often starting in Reception, critics have argued that conjoined writing styles leave many children struggling with the high level of gross and fine motor coordination required.


title: Cursive

text: In the American colonies, on the eve of their independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, it is notable that Thomas Jefferson joined most, but not all the letters when drafting the United States Declaration of Independence. However, a few days later, Timothy Matlack professionally re-wrote the presentation copy of the Declaration in a fully joined, cursive hand. Eighty-seven years later, in the middle of the 19th century, Abraham Lincoln drafted the Gettysburg Address in a cursive hand that would not look out of place today.


title: Cursive

text: In both the British Empire and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, before the typewriter, professionals used cursive for their correspondence. This was called a "fair hand", meaning it looked good, and firms trained their clerks to write in exactly the same script.


title: Cursive

text: In the early days of the post office, letters were written in cursive – and to fit more text on a single sheet, the text was continued in lines crossing at 90 degrees from the original text. Block letters were not suitable for this.


title: Cursive

text: Although women's handwriting had noticeably different particulars from men's, the general forms were not prone to rapid change. In the mid-19th century, most children were taught the contemporary cursive; in the United States, this usually occurred in second or third grade (around ages seven to nine). Few simplifications appeared as the middle of the 20th century approached.


title: Cursive

text: After the 1960s, a movement originally begun by Paul Standard in the 1930s to replace looped cursive with cursive italic penmanship resurfaced. It was motivated by the claim that cursive instruction was more difficult than it needed to be: that conventional (looped) cursive was unnecessary, and it was easier to write in cursive italic. Because of this, various new forms of cursive italic appeared, including Getty-Dubay Italic, and Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting. In the 21st century, some of the surviving cursive writing styles are Spencerian, Palmer Method, D'Nealian, and Zaner-Bloser script.


title: Cursive

text: One of the earliest forms of new technology that caused the decline of handwriting was the invention of the ballpoint pen, patented in 1888 by John Loud. Two brothers, László and György Bíró, further developed the pen by changing the design and using different ink that dried quickly. With their design, it was guaranteed that the ink would not smudge, as it would with the earlier design of pen, and it no longer required the careful penmanship one would use with the older design of pen. After World War II, the ballpoint pen was mass-produced and sold for a cheap price, changing the way people wrote. Over time the emphasis of using the style of cursive to write slowly declined, only to be later impacted by other technologies such as the phone, computer, and keyboard.


title: Cursive

text: Cursive has been in decline throughout the 21st century due to its perceived lack of necessity. The Fairfax Education Association, the largest teachers' union in Fairfax County, Virginia, has called cursive a "dying art". Many consider cursive too tedious to learn and believe that it is not a useful skill.


title: Cursive

text: On the 2006 SAT, a United States post-secondary education entrance exam, only 15 percent of the students wrote their essay answers in cursive. However, students might be discouraged from using cursive on standardized tests due to exams written in hard-to-read handwriting receiving lower marks, and some graders may have difficulties reading cursive.


title: Cursive

text: In 2007, a survey of 200 teachers of first through third grades in all 50 American states, 90 percent of respondents said their schools required the teaching of cursive.


title: Cursive

text: A nationwide survey in 2008 found elementary school teachers lacking formal training in teaching handwriting to students. Only 12 percent of teachers reported having taken a course in how to teach it.


title: Cursive

text: In 2012, the American states of Indiana and Hawaii announced that their schools will no longer be required to teach cursive (but will still be permitted to), and instead will be required to teach "keyboard proficiency". Since the nationwide proposal of the Common Core State Standards in 2009, which do not include instruction in cursive, the standards have been adopted by 44 states as of July 2011, all of which have debated whether to augment them with cursive.


title: Cursive

text: In a 2022 article in The Atlantic, historian and former Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust noted that the Gen Z never learned to read and write cursive.


title: Cursive

text: Many historical documents, such as the United States Constitution, are written in cursive—some argue the inability to read cursive therefore precludes one from being able to fully appreciate such documents in their original format. Despite the decline in the day-to-day use of cursive, it is being reintroduced to the curriculum of schools in the United States. States such as California, Idaho, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, and Tennessee have already mandated cursive in schools as a part of the Back to Basics program designed to maintain the integrity of cursive handwriting. Cursive instruction is required by grade 5 in Illinois, starting with the 2018–2019 school year. Some argue that cursive is not worth teaching in schools and "in the 1960s cursive was implemented because of preference and not an educational basis; Hawaii and Indiana have replaced cursive instruction with 'keyboard proficiency' and 44 other states are currently weighing similar measures."


title: Cursive

text: Students with dyslexia, who have difficulty learning to read because their brains have difficulty associating sounds and letter combinations efficiently, have found that cursive can help them with the decoding process because it integrates hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and other brain and memory functions. However, students with dysgraphia may be badly served, or even substantially hindered, by demands for cursive.


title: Cursive

text: Up to the 19th century, (also known as "German cursive") was used in German-language longhand. Kurrent was not used exclusively, but rather in parallel to modern cursive (which is the same as English cursive). Writers used both cursive styles: location, contents and context of the text determined which style to use. A successor of , , was widely used in the period 1911–1941 until the Nazi Party banned it and its printed equivalent . German speakers brought up with continued to use it well into the post-war period.


title: Cursive

text: Today, three different styles of cursive writing are taught in German schools, the (introduced in 1953), the (1968), and the (1969). The German National Primary Schoolteachers' Union has proposed replacing all three with , a simplified form of non-cursive handwriting adopted by Hamburg schools.


title: Cursive

text: The "Russian Cursive Cyrillic" alphabet is used (instead of the block letters) when handwriting the modern Russian language. While several letters resemble Latin counterparts, many of them represent different sounds. Most handwritten Russian, especially personal letters and schoolwork, uses the cursive Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet, although use of block letters in private writing has been rising. Most children in Russian schools are taught in the 1st grade how to write using this Russian script.


title: Cursive

text: Cursive forms of Chinese characters are used in calligraphy; "running script" is the semi-cursive form and "rough script" (mistakenly called "grass script" due to literal misinterpretation) is the cursive. The running aspect of this script has more to do with the formation and connectedness of strokes "within" an individual character than with connections between characters as in Western connected cursive. The latter are rare in hanzi and in the derived Japanese kanji characters which are usually well separated by the writer.


title: Alfred Enoch

text: Alfred Lewis Enoch (born 2 December 1988) is an English actor, best known for playing Dean Thomas in the "Harry Potter" film series and Wes Gibbins in the ABC legal thriller television series "How to Get Away with Murder".


title: Alfred Enoch

text: Enoch was born on 2 December 1988 in the Westminster district of London, the only child of actor William Russell and his second wife, Etheline Margareth Lewis, a Barbadian Brazilian doctor. He has three half-siblings from his father's previous marriage. Enoch holds dual British and Brazilian citizenship. He lived with his parents in southern France when he was two or three. He was educated at Westminster School, a historic public school in Westminster.


title: Alfred Enoch

text: Enoch is a fluent speaker of English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, and graduated from the Queen's College, Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages.


title: Alfred Enoch

text: In 2001, he was cast as Dean Thomas in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". He appeared in seven of the eight "Harry Potter" films. He also voiced the character in video games.


title: Alfred Enoch

text: After the "Harry Potter" films, Enoch appeared in a number of plays throughout London including "Coriolanus", "Timon of Athens", "Antigone", "Happy New." He played Bainbridge, the Bloody Guardsman, in the "Sherlock" episode, "The Sign of Three".


title: Alfred Enoch

text: In 2014, Enoch began starring as Wes Gibbins in the ABC legal thriller series "How to Get Away with Murder", produced by Shonda Rhimes.


title: Alfred Enoch

text: In 2016, Enoch played Edgar/Poor Tom in the well-received Talawa Theatre Company and Manchester Royal Exchange co-production of "King Lear", for which he garnered much praise for his characterisation and the physicality he brought to the roles.


title: Alfred Enoch

text: Enoch returned to the West End in the 2018 revival of "Red" at Wyndham's Theatre, starring alongside Alfred Molina. And also in 2018, he played Aeneas, in BBC ONE & Netflix TV miniseries ''.


title: Alfred Enoch

text: In 2020, Enoch returned for two episodes of "How to Get Away with Murder"s sixth season but in the separate role of the adult version of Christopher Castillo, Wes' son.


title: Alfred Enoch

text: In 2021, he played Romeo in a production of "Romeo and Juliet" at the Globe Theatre in London, and he also played Raych Seldon in Apple TV+ science fiction series "Foundation".


title: Alfred Enoch

text: Enoch returned to the special featuring "" in 2022. He will also be embarking on a new career exploration as the Dramaturg for "Shades of Blue" at Sadler's Wells in May.


title: India pale ale

text: The style of pale ale which became known as India pale ale was widespread in England by 1815, and would grow in popularity, notably as an export beer shipped to India (which was under the control of the British East India Company until 1858) and elsewhere.


title: India pale ale

text: The pale ales of the early 18th century were lightly hopped and quite different from today's pale ales. By the mid-18th century, pale ale was mostly brewed with coke-fired malt, which produced less smoking and roasting of barley in the malting process, and hence produced a paler beer. One such variety of beer was October beer, a pale well-hopped brew popular among the landed gentry, who brewed it domestically; once brewed it was intended to cellar two years.


title: India pale ale

text: Among the first brewers known to export beer to India was George Hodgson's Bow Brewery, on the Middlesex-Essex boundary. Its beers became popular among East India Company traders' provisions in the late 18th century for being two miles up the Lea from the East India Docks, and Hodgson's liberal credit line of 18 months. Ships exported this beer to India, among them his October beer, which benefited exceptionally from conditions of the voyage and was apparently highly regarded among its consumers in India. The brewery came into the control of Hodgson's son early in the next century, but his business practices alienated customers. During the same period, several Burton breweries lost their export market in Europe, Scandinavia and Russia when the Napoleonic blockade was imposed, and Burton brewers were seeking a new export market for their beer.


title: India pale ale

text: At the behest of the East India Company, Allsopp's brewery developed a strongly-hopped pale ale in the style of Hodgson's for export to India. Other Burton brewers, including Bass and Salt quickly followed Allsopp's lead. Perhaps as a result of the advantages of Burton water in brewing, Burton India pale ale was preferred by merchants and their customers in India, but Hodgson's October beer clearly influenced the Burton brewers' India pale ales.


title: India pale ale

text: London East End brewer Charrington's trial shipments of hogsheads of "India Ale" to Madras and Calcutta in 1827 proved successful and a regular trade emerged with the key British agents and retailers: Griffiths & Co in Madras; Adam, Skinner and Co. in Bombay and Bruce, Allen & Co. in Calcutta.


title: India pale ale

text: Early IPAs, like those mentioned above, were only slightly higher in alcohol than most of the other beers brewed in their day and would not have been considered strong ales; however, more of the wort was well-fermented, meaning few residual sugars, and the beer was strongly hopped. The common story that early IPAs were much stronger than other beers of the time, however, is a myth. While IPAs were formulated to survive long voyages by sea better than other styles of the time, porter was also successfully shipped to India and California.


title: India pale ale

text: It is clear that by the 1860s, India pale ales were widely brewed in England, and that they were much more attenuated and highly hopped than porters and many other ales.


title: India pale ale

text: Demand for the export style of pale ale, which had become known as "India pale ale", developed in England around 1840 and India pale ale became a popular product in England. In 1837, Hodgson's IPA typically cost 6/6 (£) for a dozen pint bottles, the same as Guinness Double Stout, 53% more than the 4/3 (£) a dozen for those of porter. Some brewers dropped the term "India" in the late 19th century, but records indicated that these "pale ales" retained the features of earlier IPAs. American, Australian, and Canadian brewers manufactured beer with the label IPA before 1900, and records suggest that these beers were similar to English IPA of the era.


title: India pale ale

text: IPA style beers started being exported to other colonial countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, around this time with many breweries dropping the 'I' in 'IPA' and simply calling them Pale Ales or Export Pales. Kirkstall Brewery and many competitors sent much export beer across the world by steam ship to auction off to wholesalers upon arrival.


title: India pale ale

text: India pale ale was well known as early as 1815, but gained popularity in the British domestic market sometime before then. By World War I, IPA in Britain had diverged into two styles, the premium bottled IPAs of around 1.065 specific gravity and cask-conditioned draught IPAs which were among the weakest beers on the bar. For instance Bass was 1.065 OG and 6.4% ABV, but in 1912 Whitbread's draught IPA was 1.049 and less than 5% ABV, at a time when the average British beer was 1.055. Like all British beers, their strength declined during World War I and by 1923 Bass was 1.055 and Whitbread IPA was a bottled beer of 1.036 and 3.7% (compared to their standard X Mild at 1.042 and their draught bitter at 1.042). Greene King IPA (3.7%) and Charles Wells Eagle IPA (3.6%) are examples of IPAs in this tradition.


title: India pale ale

text: Worthington's White Shield is an example of a historic India Pale Ale, first brewed in 1829 principally for export to the British Empire. By the 1960s White Shield had become a cult drink brewed in small quantities for a dedicated following, but it found renewed popularity in the early 1970s when the demand for real ale grew in the UK.


title: India pale ale

text: The revival of IPA in modern times dates to a seminar on Burton pale ales organised by publican Mark Dorber at his pub, the White Horse, Parson's Green, in 1990. That led to a pale ale festival in 1992 and an IPA festival in 1993, for which Bass brewed a 7.2% beer inspired by Bass Continental, originally brewed for the Belgian market before World War II and based on Bass recipes going back to the 1850s. Dorber and Roger Protz then organised an IPA conference in 1994 at Whitbread's brewery in London, attended by brewers from both sides of the Atlantic. The influence of this meeting persists, for instance Brooklyn Brewery's East India IPA is based on the beer that Garrett Oliver took there.


title: India pale ale

text: In the 21st century, US-influenced IPA is one of the most popular beer styles in the UK. In 2019, Brewdog's Punk IPA was the country's best selling craft beer in the on-trade and Swannay's Muckle IPA won overall craft keg gold in SIBA's Independent Beer Awards.


title: India pale ale

text: In the late 20th century craft beer revolution in the United States, brewers began seeking out old beer styles that had fallen out of vogue; Ballantine IPA, which had been made in the U.S. since 1890 until the 1990s, proved inspirational. The traditional IPA style was well-suited to model the intense flavour and aroma of American hops. Bert Grant of Yakima Brewing and Malting identified that Cascade and Chinook hops, grown locally in Yakima, Washington, provided strong flavours when showcased in an IPA. The boom in popularity for IPA as a style spread down the west coast of the United States, then across the United States and eventually the world. It is estimated that over 40% of craft beer brewed in the United States can be classified as an IPA.


title: India pale ale

text: As the "Oxford Companion to Beer" notes: "IPA is now the signature of craft brewers worldwide. Fittingly for an export beer, brewers from Australia to Scandinavia are creating new beers, mostly inspired by the American take on the style, but often adding a regional twist of their own."


title: India pale ale

text: Black IPA (also known as Cascadian Dark Ale (CDA) or American Black Ale), is not pale in color. Black IPAs share the bitter hoppy flavours of their IPA cousins; however, the use of roasted malts gives them a much darker malty flavour. Greg Noonan of Vermont Pub & Brewery created the first black IPA for sale on draught only in the pub in the early 1990s, but it didn't become popular in the United States until 2009.


title: India pale ale

text: A crisp, dry IPA, the Brut IPA was invented by Kim Sturdavant, head brewer at San Francisco's Social Kitchen and Brewery. To make a brut IPA, brewers add the enzyme amyloglucosidase to remove sugars.


title: India pale ale

text: Double IPAs (also referred to as Imperial IPAs) are a stronger, very hoppy variant of IPAs that typically have alcohol content above 7.5% by volume. The style is claimed to have originated with Vinnie Cilurzo, currently the owner of Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, California, in 1994 at the now-defunct Blind Pig Brewery in Temecula, California.


title: India pale ale

text: New England IPA (NEIPA, also referred to as Hazy IPA or Juicy IPA) was invented by John Kimmich in 2004 at the Alchemist Brewery in Waterbury, Vermont. Characterized by juicy citrus and floral flavours, with an emphasis on hop aroma with lower bitterness, they also have a smooth consistency or mouthfeel, and a hazy appearance. These characteristics are achieved using a combination of brewing techniques, including the use of particular strains of yeast, the timing of adding the hops, and adjusting the chemistry of the water. New England IPAs do not necessarily need to be brewed in New England. It was officially recognized as a separate beer style, the Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale, by the Brewers Association in 2018. A variation on the style is the milkshake IPA, which adds lactose to make a New England IPA more creamy.


title: India pale ale

text: Triple IPAs are characterized by higher hop flavours and higher alcohol content, with alcohol content usually over 10% ABV.


title: India pale ale

text: West Coast IPAs are known for being low in malt content, very clear, and dry with a focus on the hops.


title: India pale ale

text: India pale lager (IPL) is a hoppy beer style inspired by India pale ale. But unlike IPAs, IPLs are fermented with a lager yeast strain at lager fermentation temperatures. They generally combine a crisp lager finish with amplified hops.


title: Carbon footprint

text: A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (COe). Greenhouse gases, including the carbon-containing gases carbon dioxide and methane, can be emitted through the burning of fossil fuels, land clearance, and the production and consumption of food, manufactured goods, materials, wood, roads, buildings, transportation and other services.


title: Carbon footprint

text: In most cases, the total carbon footprint cannot be calculated exactly because of inadequate knowledge of data about the complex interactions between contributing processes, including the influence of natural processes that store or release carbon dioxide. For this reason, Wright, Kemp, and Williams proposed the following definition of a carbon footprint:


title: Carbon footprint

text: The global average annual carbon footprint per person in 2014 was about 5 tonnes COe. Although there are many ways to calculate a carbon footprint, the Nature Conservancy suggests that the average carbon footprint for a U.S. citizen is 16 tons. This is one of the highest rates in the world, leading to new policies implemented to reduce carbon footprint. Scholars estimated that New York City can eliminate the carbon footprint of its buildings by 2050. Based on city documents and national statistics, a significant measure directly controlled by New York is the elimination of carbon emissions from municipal district heating, which may account for up to 30% of New York city’s reported carbon emissions and 58% of the energy-related carbon emissions.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The use of household carbon footprint calculators originated when oil producer BP hired Ogilvy to create an "effective propaganda" campaign to shift responsibility of climate change-causing pollution away from the corporations and institutions that created a society where carbon emissions are unavoidable and onto personal lifestyle choices. The term "carbon footprint" was also popularized by BP.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Human activities are one of the main causes of greenhouse gas emissions. These increase the earth's temperature and are emitted from the use of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas), particularly in energy and transportation. The major effects of such practices mainly consist of climate changes, such as extreme precipitation and acidification and warming of oceans. Climate change has been occurring since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the 1820s. Due to humans' heavy reliance on fossil fuels, energy usage, and constant deforestation, the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is increasing, which makes reducing a greenhouse gas footprint harder to achieve. However, there are several ways to reduce one's greenhouse gas footprint, such as changing eating habits (reducing meat and dairy, as well as food waste), using more energy efficient appliances at home, buying less in general (particularly throwaway items, such as fast fashion) and travelling less (particularly reducing air travel).


title: Carbon footprint

text: Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are gases that increase the temperature of the Earth due to their absorption of infrared radiation. Although some emissions are natural, the rate of which they are being produced has increased because of humans. These gases are emitted from fossil fuel usage in electricity, in heat and transportation, as well as being emitted as byproducts of manufacturing. The most common GHGs are carbon dioxide (CO), methane (CH), nitrous oxide (NO), and many fluorinated gases. A greenhouse gas footprint is the numerical quantity of these gases that a single entity emits. The calculations can be computed ranging from a single person to the entire world.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The latest climate science is published in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. The report presents key scientific findings linking the increase in anthropogenic GHGs emissions in current climate change. According to the report, it is only possible to avoid warming of 1.5 °C or 2 °C if massive and immediate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are made.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The concept and name of the carbon footprint was derived from the ecological footprint concept, which was developed by William E. Rees and Mathis Wackernagel in the 1990s at the University of British Columbia. While carbon footprints are usually reported in tons of emissions (CO-equivalent) per year, ecological footprints are usually reported in comparison to what the planet can renew. This assesses the number of "earths" that would be required if everyone on the planet consumed resources at the same level as the person calculating their ecological footprint. The carbon footprint is one part of the ecological footprint. Carbon footprints are more focused than ecological footprints since they merely measure emissions of gases that cause climate change into the atmosphere.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Carbon footprint is one of a family of footprint indicators, which also include ecological footprints, water footprints and land footprints.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The idea of a personal carbon footprint was popularized by a large advertising campaign of the fossil fuel company BP in 2005, designed by Ogilvy. It instructed people to calculate their personal footprints and provided ways for people to "go on a low-carbon diet". This strategy, also employed by other major fossil fuel companies borrowed heavily from previous campaigns by the tobacco industry and plastics industry to shift the blame for negative consequences of those industries (under-age smoking, cigarette butt pollution, and plastic pollution) onto individual choices.


title: Carbon footprint

text: BP made no attempt to reduce its own carbon footprint, instead expanding its oil drilling into the 2020s. However, the strategy had some success, with a rise in consumers concerned about their own personal actions, and creation of multiple carbon footprint calculators.


title: Carbon footprint

text: An individual's, nation's, or organization's carbon footprint can be measured by undertaking a GHG emissions assessment, a life cycle assessment, or other calculative activities denoted as carbon accounting. Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it, for example, by technological developments, energy efficiency improvements, better process and product management, changed Green Public or Private Procurement (GPP), carbon capture, consumption strategies, carbon offsetting and others.


title: Carbon footprint

text: For calculating personal carbon footprints, several free online carbon footprint calculators exist including a few supported by publicly available peer-reviewed data and calculations including the University of California, Berkeley's CoolClimate Network research consortium and CarbonStory. These websites ask you to answer more or less detailed questions about your diet, transportation choices, home size, shopping and recreational activities, usage of electricity, heating, and heavy appliances such as dryers and refrigerators, and so on. The website then estimates your carbon footprint based on your answers to these questions. A systematic literature review was conducted to objectively determine the best way to calculate individual/household carbon footprints. This review identified 13 calculation principles and subsequently used the same principles to evaluate the 15 most popular online carbon footprint calculators. A recent study's results by Carnegie Mellon's Christopher Weber found that the calculation of carbon footprints for products is often filled with large uncertainties. The variables of owning electronic goods such as the production, shipment, and previous technology used to make that product, can make it difficult to create an accurate carbon footprint. It is important to question, and address the accuracy of Carbon Footprint techniques, especially due to its overwhelming popularity.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Calculating the carbon footprint of industry, product, or service is a complex task. One tool industry uses Life-cycle assessment (LCA), where carbon footprint may be one of many factors taken into consideration when assessing a product or service. The International Organization for Standardization has a standard called ISO 14040:2006 that has the framework for conducting an LCA study. ISO 14060 family of standards provides further sophisticated tools for quantifying, monitoring, reporting and validating or verifying of GHG emissions and removals. Another method is through the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a set of standards for tracking greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) across scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions within the value chain.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Predicting the carbon footprint of a process is also possible through estimations using the above standards. By using Emission intensities/Carbon intensities and the estimated annual use of fuel, chemical, or other inputs, the carbon footprint can be determined while a process is being planned/designed.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Direct or 'scope 1' carbon emissions come from sources that are directly from the site that is producing a product or delivering a service. An example for industry would be the emissions related to burning a fuel on site. On the individual level, emissions from personal vehicles or gas burning stoves would fall under scope 1.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Indirect carbon emissions are emissions from sources upstream or downstream from the process being studied, also known as scope 2 or scope 3 emissions.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Scope 2 emissions are the other indirect related to purchased electricity, heat, and/or steam used on site.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Scope 3 emissions are all other indirect emissions derived from the activities of an organisation but from sources which they do not own or control. The GHG Protocol's Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard allows companies to assess their entire value chain emissions impact and identify where to focus reduction activities.


title: Carbon footprint

text: In the UK, DEFRA provides emission factors going back to 2002 covering scope 1, 2 and 3. DEFRA no longer provide international emission factors and refer visitors to the IEA who provide free highlights and paid for details covering Scope 1 and 2.


title: Carbon footprint

text: According to The World Bank, the global average carbon footprint in 2014 was 4.97 metric tons CO/cap. The EU average for 2007 was about 13.8 tons COe/cap, whereas for the U.S., Luxembourg and Australia it was over 25 tons COe/cap. In 2017, the average for the USA was about 20 metric tons COe.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Mobility (driving, flying & small amount from public transit), shelter (electricity, heating, construction) and food are the most important consumption categories determining the carbon footprint of a person. In the EU, the carbon footprint of mobility is evenly split between direct emissions (e.g. from driving private cars) and emissions embodied in purchased products related to mobility (air transport service, emissions occurring during the production of cars and during the extraction of fuel). In low carbon economies such as Sweden and France the majority of household carbon is in imported goods 65% and 51% respectively.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The carbon footprint of U.S. households is about 5 times greater than the global average. For most U.S. households the single most important action to reduce their carbon footprint is driving less or switching to a more efficient vehicle.


title: Carbon footprint

text: As well as calculating carbon footprints for whole countries, it is also possible to calculate the footprint of regions, cities, and neighbourhoods.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Three studies concluded that hydroelectric, wind, and nuclear power produced the least CO per kilowatt-hour of any other electricity sources.


title: Carbon footprint

text: These figures do not include emissions due to accidents or terrorism. Wind power and solar power emit no carbon from their operation, but do leave a footprint during construction and maintenance. Hydropower from reservoirs also has large footprints from initial removal of vegetation and ongoing methane (stream detritus decays anaerobically to methane in bottom of reservoir, rather than aerobically to CO if it had stayed in an unrestricted stream).


title: Carbon footprint

text: The generation of electricity accounts for about half of the world's man-made CO output. The CO footprint for heat is equally significant and research shows that using waste heat from power generation in combined heat and power district heating, chp/dh has the lowest carbon footprint, much lower than micro-power or heat pumps.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Coal production has been refined to greatly reduce carbon emissions; since the 1980s, the amount of energy used to produce a ton of steel has decreased by 50%.


title: Carbon footprint

text: This section gives representative figures for the carbon footprint of the fuel burned by different transport types (not including the carbon footprints of the vehicles or related infrastructure themselves). The precise figures vary according to a wide range of factors.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Some representative figures for CO emissions are provided by LIPASTO's survey of average direct emissions (not accounting for high-altitude radiative effects) of airliners expressed as CO and CO equivalent per passenger kilometre:


title: Carbon footprint

text: However, emissions per unit distance travelled is not necessarily the best indicator for the carbon footprint of air travel, because the distances covered are commonly longer than by other modes of travel. It is the total emissions for a trip that matters for a carbon footprint, not merely the rate of emissions. For example, because air travel makes rapid long-distance travel feasible, a holiday destination may be chosen that is much more distant than if another mode of travel were used.


title: Carbon footprint

text: CO emissions per passenger-kilometre (pkm) for all road travel for 2011 in Europe as provided by the European Environment Agency:


title: Carbon footprint

text: For vehicles, average figures for CO emissions per kilometer for road travel for 2013 in Europe, normalized to the NEDC test cycle, are provided by the International Council on Clean Transportation:


title: Carbon footprint

text: Average figures for the United States are provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency, based on the EPA Federal Test Procedure, for the following categories:


title: Carbon footprint

text: Several organizations offer footprint calculators for public and corporate use, and several organizations have calculated carbon footprints of products. The US Environmental Protection Agency has addressed paper, plastic (candy wrappers), glass, cans, computers, carpet and tires. Australia has addressed lumber and other building materials. Academics in Australia, Korea and the US have addressed paved roads. Companies, nonprofits and academics have addressed mailing letters and packages. Carnegie Mellon University has estimated the CO footprints of 46 large sectors of the economy in each of eight countries. Carnegie Mellon, Sweden and the Carbon Trust have addressed foods at home and in restaurants.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The Carbon Trust has worked with UK manufacturers on foods, shirts and detergents, introducing a CO label in March 2007. The label is intended to comply with a new British Publicly Available Specification (i.e. not a standard), PAS 2050, and is being actively piloted by The Carbon Trust and various industrial partners. As of August 2012 The Carbon Trust state they have measured 27,000 certifiable product carbon footprints.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Evaluating the package of some products is key to figuring out the carbon footprint. The key way to determine a carbon footprint is to look at the materials used to make the item. For example, a juice carton is made of an aseptic carton, a beer can is made of aluminum, and some water bottles either made of glass or plastic. The larger the size, the larger the footprint will be.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Food contributes 10-30% of a household’s carbon footprint, mainly attributed to agricultural practices like food production and transportation. Meat products have larger carbon footprints than plant products like vegetables and grains due to inefficient conversion of plant energy to animals, and the release of methane from manure. In a 2014 study by Scarborough et al., the real-life diets of British people were surveyed and their dietary greenhouse gas footprints estimated. Average dietary greenhouse-gas emissions per day (in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent) were:


title: Carbon footprint

text: The precise carbon footprint of different textiles varies considerably according to a wide range of factors. However, studies of textile production in Europe suggest the following carbon dioxide equivalent emissions footprints per kilo of textile at the point of purchase by a consumer:


title: Carbon footprint

text: Accounting for durability and energy required to wash and dry textile products, synthetic fabrics generally have a substantially lower carbon footprint than natural ones.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The carbon footprint of materials (also known as embodied carbon) varies widely. The carbon footprint of many common materials can be found in the Inventory of Carbon & Energy database, the GREET databases and models, and LCA databases via openLCA Nexus. The carbon footprint of any manufactured product should be verified by a third-party.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The concept of a political "carbon footprint" measuring individuals' political choices (e.g. voting) were first introduced in 2021 for the election in Canada by Seth Wynes, Matthew Motta, and Simon Donner; and in parallel for Germany and the UK by Jakob Thomä. This research represents the first attempt to expand the concept of a personal footprint beyond consumption and investment footprints. The analysis for the election in Canada suggests the median "pro-climate" vote translated to 34.2 tons of COe emissions reduction, compared to a 2 ton reduction of living car free. The analysis for Germany and UK measured relative footprint reductions by switching the vote to more "pro-climate parties". In the German Elections in 2021, a German voter would have reduced around 7 tons of COe emissions per year when switching from the SPD (Labour) party to the Green party, compared to 3 tons associated with switching to a more "sustainable lifestyle". Political carbon footprints typically find significantly higher emissions reduction potential than consumption or investment footprints, given that consumption footprints only capture effects on your own behavior whereas voters determine climate outcomes for both voters for the winning party, voters for the losing party, and non-voters.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The carbon footprinting of financial portfolios (so-called "financed emissions") has its origin in the mid-2000's with initiatives from investors (Henderson and Pictet AM) and NGOs seeking to hold banks and investors to account with regard to their carbon footprint. The 2° Investing Initiative conducted the first review of financed emissions methodologies in 2013. The Montreal Carbon Pledge is the first formal footprinting pledge by financial institutions. Overseen by the PRI, it has attracted commitment from over 120 investors with over US$10 trillion in assets under management, as of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in December 2015 in Paris. There are a range of financed emisisons data and methodology providers across major financial service providers (e.g. ISS, MSCI, S&P Sustainable1). The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financial (PCAF) is an industry initiative designed to standardize the accounting principles underpinning financed emissions. The use of the carbon footprint concept is not without controversy however, as the translation of the footprinting logic to financial instruments comes with a number of challenges and caveats, including the need to normalize by financial variables that distort the results and data qualty. As a result, many major climate target-setting initiatives focus on forward-looking portfolio alignment methodologies (e.g. PACTA).


title: Carbon footprint

text: Although some production of greenhouse gases is natural, human activity has increased the production substantially. Major industrial sources of greenhouse gases are power plants, residential buildings, and road transportation, as well as energy industry processes and losses, iron and steel manufacturing, coal mining, and chemical and petrochemical industries. Changes in the environment also contribute the increase in greenhouse gas emission such as, deforestation, forest degradation and land use changes, livestock, agricultural soils and water, and wastewater. China is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas, causing up 30% of the total emissions. The United States contributes 15%, followed by the EU with 9%, then India with 7%, Russia with 5%, Japan with 4%, and other miscellaneous countries making up the remaining 30%.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Although carbon dioxide (CO) is the most prevalent gas, it is not the most damaging. Carbon dioxide is essential to life because animals release it during cellular respiration when they breathe and plants use it for photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide is released naturally by decomposition, ocean release and respiration. Humans contribute an increase of carbon dioxide emissions by burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and cement production.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Methane (CH) is largely released by coal, oil, and natural gas industries. Although methane is not mass-produced like carbon dioxide, it is still very prevalent. Methane is more harmful than carbon dioxide because it traps heat better than CO. Methane is a main component in natural gas. Recently industries as well as consumers have been using natural gas because they believe that it is better for the environment since it contains less CO. However, this is not the case because methane is actually more harmful to the environment.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Nitrous oxide (NO) is released by fuel combustion, most of which comes from coal fired power plants, agricultural and industrial activities.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Fluorinated gases include hydroflucarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF). These gases have no natural source and are solely products of human activity. The biggest cause of these sources is the usage of ozone depleting substances; such as refrigerants, aerosol, propellants, foam blowing agents, solvents, and fire retardants.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The production of all of these gases contributes to one's GHG footprint. The more that these gases are produced, the higher the GHG footprint.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Since the Industrial Revolution, greenhouse gas emissions have increased immensely. As of 2017, the carbon dioxide (CO) levels are 142%, of what they were pre-industrial revolution. Methane is up 253% and nitrous oxide is 121% of pre-industrial levels. The energy driven consumption of fossil fuels has made GHG emissions rapidly increase, causing the Earth's temperature to rise. In the past 250 years, human activity such as, burning fossil fuels and cutting down carbon-absorbing forests, have contributed greatly to this increase. In the last 25 years alone, emissions have increased by more than 33%, most of which comes from carbon dioxide, accounting for three-fourths of this increase.


title: Carbon footprint

text: A July 2017 study published in "Environmental Research Letters" found that the most significant way individuals could mitigate their own carbon footprint is to have one less child ("an average for developed countries of 58.6 tonnes CO-equivalent (tCOe) emission reductions per year"), followed by living car-free (2.4 tonnes CO-equivalent per year), forgoing air travel (1.6 tonnes CO-equivalent per trans-Atlantic trip) and adopting a plant-based diet (0.8 tonnes CO-equivalent per year). The study also found that most government resources on climate change focus on actions that have a relatively modest effect on greenhouse gas emissions, and concludes that "a US family who chooses to have one fewer child would provide the same level of emissions reductions as 684 teenagers who choose to adopt comprehensive recycling for the rest of their lives".


title: Carbon footprint

text: An option is to drive less. Walking, biking, carpooling, mass transportation and combining trips result in burning less fuel and releasing fewer emissions into the atmosphere.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The choice of diet is a major influence on a person's carbon footprint. Animal sources of protein (especially red meat), rice (typically produced in high methane-emitting paddies), foods transported long-distance or via fuel-inefficient transport (e.g., highly perishable produce flown long-distance) and heavily processed and packaged foods are among the major contributors to a high carbon diet. Scientists at the University of Chicago have estimated "that the average American diet – which derives 28% of its calories from animal foods – is responsible for approximately one and a half more tonnes of greenhouse gasses – as equivalents – per person, per year than a fully plant-based, or vegan, diet." Their calculations suggest that even replacing one third of the animal protein in the average American's diet with plant protein (e.g., beans, grains) can reduce the diet's carbon footprint by half a tonne. Exchanging two-thirds of the animal protein with plant protein is roughly equivalent to switching from a Toyota Camry to a Prius. Finally, throwing food out not only adds its associated carbon emissions to a person or household's footprint, but it also adds the emissions of transporting the wasted food to the garbage dump and the emissions of food decomposition, mostly in the form of the highly potent greenhouse gas, methane.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Options to reduce the carbon footprint of humans include Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse. This can be done by using reusable items such as thermoses for daily coffee or plastic containers for water and other cold beverages rather than disposable ones. If that option isn't available, it is best to properly recycle the disposable items after use.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Another option for reducing the carbon footprint of humans is to use less air conditioning and heating in the home. By adding insulation to the walls and attic of one's home, and installing weather stripping, or caulking around doors and windows one can lower their heating costs more than 25 percent. Similarly, one can very inexpensively upgrade the "insulation" (clothing) worn by residents of the home. For example, it's estimated that wearing a base layer of long underwear with top and bottom, made from a lightweight, super-insulating fabric like microfleece, can conserve as much body heat as a full set of clothing, allowing a person to remain warm with the thermostat lowered by over 5 °C. These measures all help because they reduce the amount of energy needed to heat and cool the house. One can also turn down the heat while sleeping at night or away during the day, and keep temperatures moderate at all times. Setting the thermostat just 2 degrees lower in winter and higher in summer could save about 1 ton of carbon dioxide each year.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The carbon handprint movement emphasizes individual forms of carbon offsetting, like using more public transportation or planting trees in deforested regions, to reduce one's carbon footprint and increase their "handprint."


title: Carbon footprint

text: refrigerant management (90 billion tonnes of COe 2017–2050, since refrigerants have thousands of times the warming potential of CO); land-based wind turbines for electricity (85 billion); reduced food waste (71 billion); and restoring tropical forests by ending use of the land for other purposes (61 billion). They calculate benefits cumulatively to 2050, rather than annually, because industrial actions have long lead times.


title: Carbon footprint

text: A product, service, or company's carbon footprint can be affected by several factors including, but not limited to:


title: Carbon footprint

text: These factors can also change with location or industry. However, there are some general steps that can be taken to reduce carbon footprint on a larger scale.


title: Carbon footprint

text: In 2016, the EIA reported that in the US electricity is responsible for roughly 37% of Carbon Dioxide emissions, making it a potential target for reductions. Possibly the cheapest way to do this is through energy efficiency improvements. The ACEEE reported that energy efficiency has the potential to save the US over 800 billion kWh per year, based on 2015 data. Some potential options to increase energy efficiency include, but are not limited to:


title: Carbon footprint

text: Carbon footprint from energy consumption can be reduced through the development of nuclear power (a zero carbon emissions energy source) and alternative energy projects, such as solar and wind energy, which are renewable resources.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Reforestation, the restocking of existing forests or woodlands that have previously been depleted, is an example of Carbon Offsetting, the counteracting of carbon dioxide emissions with an equivalent reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon offsetting can reduce a companies overall carbon footprint by offering a carbon credit.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Supply chain emissions (scope 3) are on average 11.4 times higher than operational emissions, more than double previous estimates, due to suppliers improving their emissions accounting. Therefore, there is an increasing focus on companies reducing their emissions coming from their suppliers as a way to reduce risks and capture opportunities.


title: Carbon footprint

text: A life cycle or supply chain carbon footprint study can provide useful data which will help the business to identify specific and critical areas for improvement. By calculating or predicting a process’ carbon footprint high emissions areas can be identified and steps can be taken to reduce in those areas. Collecting real data from suppliers emissions, setting a strategy focused on hot-spots and incentivizing suppliers are still barriers for companies. Nevertheless, solutions exist and the focus should be on improving year-on-year.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, and the emissions of other GHGs, are often associated with the burning of fossil fuels, like natural gas, crude oil and coal. While this is harmful to the environment, carbon offsets can be purchased in an attempt to make up for these harmful effects.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The Kyoto Protocol defines legally binding targets and timetables for cutting the GHG emissions of industrialized countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Accordingly, from an economic or market perspective, one has to distinguish between a "mandatory market" and a "voluntary market". Typical for both markets is the trade with emission certificates:


title: Carbon footprint

text: To reach the goals defined in the Kyoto Protocol, with the least economical costs, the following flexible mechanisms were introduced for the mandatory market:


title: Carbon footprint

text: The CDM and JI mechanisms requirements for projects which create a supply of emission reduction instruments, while Emissions Trading allows those instruments to be sold on international markets.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The CERs and ERUs can then be sold through Emissions Trading. The demand for the CERs and ERUs being traded is driven by:


title: Carbon footprint

text: Nations which have failed to deliver their Kyoto emissions reductions obligations can enter Emissions Trading to purchase CERs and ERUs to cover their treaty shortfalls. Nations and groups of nations can also create local emission reduction schemes which place mandatory carbon dioxide emission targets on entities within their national boundaries. If the rules of a scheme allow, the obligated entities may be able to cover all or some of any reduction shortfalls by purchasing CERs and ERUs through Emissions Trading. While local emissions reduction schemes have no status under the Kyoto Protocol itself, they play a prominent role in creating the demand for CERs and ERUs, stimulating Emissions Trading and setting a market price for emissions.


title: Carbon footprint

text: New changes are being made to the trading schemes. The EU Emissions Trading Scheme is set to make some new changes within the next year. The new changes will target the emissions produced by flight travel in and out of the European Union.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Other nations are scheduled to start participating in Emissions Trading Schemes within the next few years. These nations include China, India and the United States.


title: Carbon footprint

text: In contrast to the strict rules set out for the mandatory market, the voluntary market provides companies with different options to acquire emissions reductions. A solution, comparable with those developed for the mandatory market, has been developed for the voluntary market, the Verified Emission Reductions (VER). This measure has the great advantage that the projects/activities are managed according to the quality standards set out for CDM/JI projects but the certificates provided are not registered by the governments of the host countries or the Executive Board of the UNO. As such, high quality VERs can be acquired at lower costs for the same project quality. However, at present VERs can not be used in mandatory market.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The voluntary market in North America is divided between members of the Chicago Climate Exchange and the Over The Counter (OTC) market. The Chicago Climate Exchange is a voluntary yet legally binding cap-and-trade emission scheme whereby members commit to the capped emission reductions and must purchase allowances from other members or offset excess emissions. The OTC market does not involve a legally binding scheme and a wide array of buyers from the public and private spheres, as well as special events that want to go carbon neutral. Being carbon neutral refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset, or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference.


title: Carbon footprint

text: There are project developers, wholesalers, brokers, and retailers, as well as carbon funds, in the voluntary market. Some businesses and nonprofits in the voluntary market encompass more than just one of the activities listed above. A report by Ecosystem Marketplace shows that carbon offset prices increase as it moves along the supply chain—from project developer to retailer.


title: Carbon footprint

text: While some mandatory emission reduction schemes exclude forest projects, these projects flourish in the voluntary markets. A major criticism concerns the imprecise nature of GHG sequestration quantification methodologies for forestry projects. However, others note the community co-benefits that forestry projects foster.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Project types in the voluntary market range from avoided deforestation, afforestation/reforestation, industrial gas sequestration, increased energy efficiency, fuel switching, methane capture from coal plants and livestock, and even renewable energy. Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) sold on the voluntary market are quite controversial due to additionality concerns. Industrial Gas projects receive criticism because such projects only apply to large industrial plants that already have high fixed costs. Siphoning off industrial gas for sequestration is considered picking the low hanging fruit; which is why credits generated from industrial gas projects are the cheapest in the voluntary market.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM), an initiative led by ex-governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney, aims to bring more outstanding quality and integrity to the voluntary carbon markets. The TSVCM during 2023 will seek to create a set of Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) and mechanisms to simplify companies access to high-integrity credits and provide banks and investors confidence for financing carbon projects and trading credits.


title: Carbon footprint

text: The size and activity of the voluntary carbon market are difficult to measure. The market size of voluntary carbon offsets market in 2021 is expected to hit $1 billion.


title: Carbon footprint

text: There are many simple changes that can be made to the everyday lifestyle of a person that would reduce their GHG footprint. Reducing energy consumption within a household can include lowering one's dependence on air conditioning and heating, using LED lamps, choosing ENERGY STAR appliances, recycling, using cold water to wash clothes, avoiding a dryer, and eating less meat. Another adjustment would be reducing one's reliance on gas combustion-based motor vehicles, which produce many GHGs. One could also lower their footprint by taking direct flights during air traveling. While making these changes won't bring down one's carbon footprint overnight, they will make a significant difference long term.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Sustainable living refers to ways of living that are found to be sustainable within the Earth system or by which one purposely attempts to reduce an individual's or society's use of the Earth's natural resources, and one's personal resources. Studies found that systemic change for "decarbonization" of humanity's economic structures or root-cause system changes above politics are required for a substantial impact on global warming. Such changes may result in sustainable lifestyles, along with associated products, services and expenditures, being structurally supported and becoming sufficiently prevalent and effective in terms of collective greenhouse gas emission reductions.


title: Carbon footprint

text: In order to decrease CO emissions, the reliance of fossil fuels must be lowered. These fuels produce much CO across all forms of their usage. Alternatively, renewable sources are cleaner for the environment.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Household energy conservation measures include increasing insulation in construction, using fuel-efficient vehicles and ENERGY STAR appliances, and unplugging electrical items when not in use.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Reducing methane gas emissions can be accomplished in several ways. Capturing CH emissions from coal mines and landfills, are two ways of reducing these emissions. Manure management and livestock operations is another possible solution. Motor vehicles use fossil fuels, which produces , but fossil fuels also produce as a byproduct. Thus, better technology for these vehicles to avoid leakage as well as technologies that reduce their use would be beneficial.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Nitrous oxide (NO) is often given off as a byproduct in various ways. Nylon production and fossil fuel usage are two ways that NO is given off as a byproduct. Thus, improving technology for nylon production and the gathering of fossil fuels would greatly reduce nitrous oxide emissions. Also, many fertilizers have a nitrogenous base. A decrease in usage of these fertilizers, or changing their components, are more ways to reduce NO emissions.


title: Carbon footprint

text: Although fluorinated gases are not produced on a massive scale, they have the worst effect on the environment. A reduction of fluorinated gas emissions can be done in many ways. Many industries that emit these gases can capture or recycle them. These same industries can also invest in more advanced technology that will not produce these gases. A reduction of leakage within power grids and motor vehicles will also decrease the emissions of fluorinated gases. There are also many air conditioning systems that emit fluorinated gases, thus an update in technology would decrease these emissions.


title: Royal Canadian Air Force

text: The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2020, the Royal Canadian Air Force consists of 12,074 Regular Force and 1,969 Primary Reserve personnel, supported by 1,518 civilians, and operates 258 manned aircraft and nine unmanned aerial vehicles. Lieutenant-General Eric Kenny is the current commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force and chief of the Air Force Staff.