Alastair Sawday's 
Earthscan's 
Lonely Planet's 
Carbon Calculator
Hello,
I have been looking around the forum for an answer to my question but I have not had much luck. For the past two or three hours I have been trying to calculate the amount of carbon used when travelling from London, UK to Seydisfjördur, Iceland.
I intend to travel by coach from London Victoria to Thurso in Northern Scotland. Then from Thurso by ferry to Iceland.
I have the distances worked out at 666 miles (!) for the coach journey and 571 miles for the ferry journey. I used Google Maps (here) to work out the coach journey and Mapcrow (here) for the ferry journey, which is obviously not ideal but I could not find an alternative.
For the carbon calculation I have used the National Express carbon calculator (here) and The Leeds carbon calculator (here) which is the only calculator I could find that deals with ferries.
The results are -
Coach journey - 31.08 kg CO2
Ferry journey - 432 kg CO2
I might have been happy with this if I had not noticed that The Leeds carbon calculator also calculates coach journey carbon emissions. My hike to the highlands, according to them, will spill out 86 kg CO2, 55 kg more than the National Express carbon calculator suggests.
It is all very confusing and it has taken an incredibly long time to find all of this information out. I am wondering... Is there a secret? Am I spelling carbon wrong when I type it into Google? Surely there must be a web site somewhere that I can put in the details of my journey and it can give me a rough estimate that I can rely on. A lot of the posts that I have read on this wonderful web site have referred to carbon calculations. Please tell me what sites you have been using.
Carbon calculators
Hi, for the coach part I recommend Resurgence's carbon calculator: www.resurgence.org/carboncalculator [scroll down to where it says 'train and bus journeys'].
Also, in the past I've used www.co2balance.uk.com to compare train, planes, coaches and cars, but their website doesn't include a calculator for ferries. For that, I rang them! Tel: +44 (0)1823 33 22 33. nb. co2balance provides the carbon calculations for ferrygreen.com, but its website includes this proviso: "The calculation is based on data provided, and approved by the Government agency DEFRA. The amount of co2 calculated is based purely on an average compass point, to compass point journey. It does NOT consider the individual ferry operators category of ship, the age of the vessel or the fuel burned."
Best wishes
Richard
Editor, GreenTraveller.co.uk
Complications.
Thank you for your advice Richard. I had a look at the Resurgence carbon calculator but it was a little bit confusing. I put in my journey distance - 666 miles - and it worked it out as 67 kg CO2, which looks an awful lot like they have divided 666 by 100 and added one kilogram for luck. I have no idea what the calculation should be but that one seems rather odd and it does not help me with my confusions. It is just another number somewhere between the other two. (I might be using it incorrectly).
Could you or anyone else give me some advice on who I am supposed to trust. It is all incredibly complicated. Thank you for your advice.