Climate research at the University of California, Berkeley indicates that where you live in Evanston has a major impact on how much planet-warming greenhouse gases your lifestyle produces.
A report this morning in the New York Times maps that data at the neighborhood level nationwide, and it shows that sections of Evanston near downtown have emissions lower than the national average — mostly because of lower transportation use.
By comparison, portions of north and northwest Evanston have average emissions from transportation but higher or much higher emissions related to the other four categories tracked — housing, food, goods and services.
(An interactive version of map is available on the Times website.)
The results are averages across census tracts — and individuals living in a given area may have much different climate impacts, depending on their personal choices — for example, driving and flying more or buying more goods than your neighbors.
The neighborhood level data shows considerably more variation than a ZIP Code level map previously published by the CoolClimate researchers at Berkeley.
That map shows Evanston ZIP Code 60201 as marginally better than average at 47.1 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per household per year, and 60202 as marginally worse than average at 48.8 tons.