WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: How Green Is Your Favorite Superhero?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi,

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, I'm ruin vogel Bomb and this is another

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<v Speaker 1>classic episode from the incredible past. This one has to

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<v Speaker 1>do with your personal carbon footprint and how it may

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<v Speaker 1>stack up against your favorite superheroes. Hey, they're brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>luring vogel Bomb here. If you're out there saving humanity

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<v Speaker 1>from supervillains, doesn't matter how many pounds of carbon you

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<v Speaker 1>used to do it. Gotham City would have been obliterated

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<v Speaker 1>a hundred times over if Batman weren't constantly bailing it

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<v Speaker 1>out of trouble. But that batmobile sure is a gas guzzler,

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<v Speaker 1>not to mention the Batwing airplane, and the electricity bill

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<v Speaker 1>for the bat Cave is probably astronomical. So is all

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<v Speaker 1>that do gooding really doing good after all? Some researchers

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<v Speaker 1>from Stanford University presented a poster at the American Geophysical

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<v Speaker 1>Unions Fall Meeting entitled Stop Saving the Planet Carbon Accounting

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<v Speaker 1>of Superheroes and their impacts on climate change. The point

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<v Speaker 1>of the project was to bring awareness to the fact

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<v Speaker 1>that everybody on this planet has a carbon footprint, which

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<v Speaker 1>is a calculation of how much carbon each of us

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<v Speaker 1>uses in our daily activities such as driving, eating, and

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<v Speaker 1>heating and cooling our houses. The average Americans carbon footprint

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<v Speaker 1>is around forty four pounds. That's about of carbon per year.

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<v Speaker 1>An average person in the United Arab Emirates uses a

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<v Speaker 1>good bit more, and the average Peruvian uses considerably less.

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<v Speaker 1>But what about your average superhero Well, according to the study,

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<v Speaker 1>they're all over the map. Take Superman. According to the comics,

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<v Speaker 1>the Man of Steel is entirely solar powered, which nets

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<v Speaker 1>him a carbon footprint of zero. Bless him. Jessica Jones

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<v Speaker 1>probably comes in slightly below the average Americans carbon use

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<v Speaker 1>thanks to her small Brooklyn apartment and reliance on public

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<v Speaker 1>transportation and swamp thing, what with his power to make

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<v Speaker 1>plants grow, might actually have a negative carbon footprint. That's

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<v Speaker 1>not the case for every good Samaritan in a cape, however.

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<v Speaker 1>The Oracle firstwhile bat girl turned computer packer might weigh

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<v Speaker 1>in at a conservative estimate of one and fifty one

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<v Speaker 1>thousand pounds or sixty eight ms, but the figure might

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<v Speaker 1>be as high as thirty two million pounds or a

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and forty five million kilograms, depending on how many

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<v Speaker 1>servers she's running. Even Iron Man, who makes a concerted

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<v Speaker 1>effort to employ green energy sources would come in higher

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<v Speaker 1>than the average American because of the sheer amount of

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<v Speaker 1>tech that he uses and the flash, who can run

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<v Speaker 1>near the speed of light, might require an insane number

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<v Speaker 1>of calories to accomplish this feat, possibly as much as

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<v Speaker 1>eighty nine million pounds or forty five million kilograms worth

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<v Speaker 1>of carbon. But isn't this kind of a silly question

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<v Speaker 1>for serious scientists to spend their time exploring? Poster co

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<v Speaker 1>author Miles trey Er, a post doctoral researcher at Stanford,

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<v Speaker 1>told EOS, if I calculate my own carbon footprint, that's depressing.

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<v Speaker 1>If I calculate Batman's carbon footprint, that's hilarious. So let's

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<v Speaker 1>go with the hilarious. It's a way of tricking people

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<v Speaker 1>into learning. Next, Trayer is setting his sights on the

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<v Speaker 1>carbon footprint of supervillains. One of my favorites, he said,

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<v Speaker 1>is Mr. Freeze, because refrigeration carries a pretty horrendous carbon footprint.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Jesslyn Shields and produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tristan McNeil and Tyler Klang. For more on this and

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<v Speaker 1>lots of other super topics, visit how Stuff works dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio or more podcasts.

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<v Speaker 1>My heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

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