What it is and how to use it…

Carbonfund.org's Carbon Calculator uses information from the US Department of Energy's Energy Information Agency, academic, and non-governmental organizations to assess carbon dioxide emissions. The majority of people's emissions come from electricity use, home heating, driving, and air travel. The calculator provides a US national average based on this data, but to better understand your own personal footprint, plug in as much of your own data as you can.

Start by digging up a heating and electricity bill and thinking about how much you typically travel!

Not enough time in the day? Stick with the averages. These guys are smart and pulled this information from top sources. They've calculated the following…

1 average person over the course of 1 year personally uses 4,401 kWh of electricity, 311 therms of natural gas, and drives one vehicle13,785 miles at 25.2 miles to the gallon. That totals 9.36 tons of emitted carbon dioxide a year!

Feeling a bit lightheaded yet? By clicking the donate button on the calculator you can replenish and rejuvenate the earth's atmosphere by offsetting your individual year's worth of carbon emission for only $51.47 (that's the figure based on the example above).

If your feeling a bit more charitable, choose to donate to ZeroCarbon, or the total amount of U.S. emissions divided by the total U.S. population. So while you may not personally contribute to that much carbon emission, you feel it's your duty to overcompensate for that house on your block that never turns their lights off…