Homeless Carbon

I live the kind of life we want our homeless neighbors to live.  I live in a home, and I keep it pleasantly warm and bright.  It has several rooms, all comfortably furnished with purchased objects.  I have a car, and I drive it most days.  I buy groceries at a market, I have a kitchen with electric and gas appliances, and I use the kitchen to make meals.  (Well, actually I don't;  but I eagerly eat the meals which my partner superbly cooks in that kitchen.)

What's my carbon footprint?  Less than most people's, probably, but well within the bell curve of normal for the USA.

What's the carbon footprint of a typical homeless person?  How many homeless could fit into my footprint?

I claim that homeless people are an asset to the environment.

But wait:  before you go apoplectic, let's narrow that claim down a bit.  More specifically, I claim that homeless people, in exchange for the (unwanted and unintended) benefit of their low carbon footprint, deserve to be recognized and reimbursed for that benefit.  I claim that homeless people can and should sell their carbon offsets!

(Since you asked:  by some estimates a normal homed person produces nearly 2 tons of CO2 a month;  that would theoretically give a homeless person  up to 2 tons a month of credit to sell, perhaps at between 10 and 20 bucks a ton.  Enough bucks to buy some low-carbon veggies at the local farmers market, right?)


Note:  I'm not a fan of "cap and trade".  I think its legitimizing of a given amount of damage is at best a temporary improvement and at worst yet another way to feel pretty while executing rampant harm.  But to those already playing the game, I say, let in some real experts!