Carbon Detective: Toy Story

Did some weekly cleaning over the weekend for the kids' room. Apart from the usual tidying up I took stock of toys that can be given off and found an interesting pattern about my kids' interests, interested?
70% of toys are vehicles with cars being the most prefered ones. Most of the cars were non battery operated - and each one looked as if it had clocked upwards of 100,000 kilometers. Looks like money well spent. However, there were few almost brand new toys and few were battery operated as well.
Now, since every few weeks we end up buying a new toy for the kids', a visit from grandparents, aunts and uncles results in a windfall, any birthday party results in an exchange of toys and to top it all even Mac gives a toy, I shouldn't have been surprised at the real estate the toys occupy and their usage pattern! But I'm surprised and this is an investigation into:

• How big is the Indian Toy Industry
• What is its environmental footprint
• What are the alternatives if any for me to reduce my footprint of toys

Carbon Detective: Is there a right size?

Is there are right size for my carbon footprint? Let us see the current situation for the various countries. If per capita GDP is considered as one indicator of our progress, then there could be multiple paths and corresponding footprints.
Whichever path we take, there is no doubt about the starting point. We are at the bottom left corner of the graph and our per capita footprint is bound to increase. However, even today, for a similar per capita GDP, the per capita Carbon footprint could be very different across the nations. This tells us that though the per capita footprint is bound to increase, the path chosen and the corresponding footprint can be different.
The size of dot tells us that whether we wish it or not, the CO2 emissions from emerging economies like India will be under focus.
So, is there a right size for carbon footprint? There is definitely an appropriate size, a size that is also a function of the overall environment and time. The millenials will have to follow a different path than that followed by the Economies growing in 1900s.The governments are already busy checking the trade-offs required for a low carbon economy. It is a tough balancing act to shift right on the per capita GDP axis without going too high up on the per capita CO2 emission axis.