According to Wikipedia: “A carbon footprint is historically defined as the total emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent.”
How this relates to an individual: Your carbon footprint is a measurement of the amount of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by your daily activities during your life so far. Everyday activities can add to your carbon footprint without you even realizing it.
The electricity you use on a daily basis comes from the burning of fossil fuels which emit a huge amount of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.
The car you drive to work or the flight you take on holiday will increase your carbon footprint. Every time you take your car you are emitting carbon dioxide. Planes are also a major contributor to carbon dioxide emissions and every time you fly in a plane your carbon footprint increases.
The food you buy can increase your carbon footprint. The manufacturing and farming of red meat, processed and other foods produces carbon emissions.
Food farmed and items manufactured at great distances from your store or your home require transport to make it available to you, the transport of the foods and items you buy adds to carbon emissions and increases your carbon footprint.
The waste you produce and the disposal process required for that waste also adds to your carbon footprint.
Simply doing your laundry, washing your dishes or having a shower can increase your carbon footprint.
These are just a few of many ways in which everyday activities and habits contribute to your carbon footprint. There are many websites and apps that you can use in order to calculate your carbon footprint to get a better understanding of your impact on the planet. A few are listed below:
Websites:
Apps:
Why is a high carbon footprint bad?
According to The Global Carbon Footprint Network: Humanity’s carbon Footprint has increased 11-fold since 1961. And it is still rising with the increase of the worlds population. What does a high carbon footprint mean for the future of our planet and why should we be concerned?
One of the main components of measuring a carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gasses emitted by the human race and our way of living. To understand why this is of concern it is first important to understand our planet. The Earth has a natural layer of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor and more) that trap the UV rays from the sun and help protect the earth and maintain the planet's temperature. When these gases increase as a result of human actions, temperatures around the world start to increase. This is known as the greenhouse effect which leads to climate change. The effects of climate change can be disastrous for the future of humans on planet earth. An increase in global temperatures lead to the melting of the Polar ice glaciers which lead to rising sea levels which will flood onto low areas of land. The increase in temperatures will also have a huge impact on the weather, we are likely to see an increase of droughts as well as erratic weather patterns and harsher storms.
Other impacts of high Carbon footprints are the destruction of marine life by overfishing, using harmful fishing methods that catch not only fish but dolphins, turtles and other endangered marine life. Oil spills from shipping boats and oil rigs, can destroy huge areas of marine eco-systems. The amount of waste and garbage that are washed into the ocean also cause massive destruction to marine life and ecosystems.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill are just some examples of how our waste and irresponsible behavior is destroying the environment we live in.
Our carbon footprint also affects the land we all live and depend on. We need trees for the oxygen we breathe. However, with an increase in the demand for fast food, fast fashion and single use products, we are destroying natural ecosystems that provide huge amounts of oxygen to make way for farms, mines, towns or factories. The trees that are destroyed not only provided vital oxygen, without which no human can survive, trees also play an important roll in decreasing your carbon footprint by reducing carbon dioxide. By reducing the number of trees on our planet we are not only reducing the vital oxygen we need but we are also increasing our carbon footprint. The farms, mines or factories that replace these natural ecosystems, usually do more harm to us. As chemicals and pesticides wash into our rivers thereby polluting our drinking water. The two most important things for human survival are Oxygen and Water, without these a human beings cannot survive, yet these are the things that we choose to destroy by our irresponsible behavior and convenient way of life.
How to reduce your carbon footprint.
Globally the average carbon footprint per person is around 4 tons, however its is closer to 16 tons for persons living in the United States. To have the best chance for avoiding climate change and increasing worldwide temperatures, we all have to reduce our carbon footprint to 2 tons per person globally by the year 2050. (nature.org) This reduction is easier for some than others, however it is every person’s duty to try to reduce his or her carbon footprint. Start today with a few changes and create eco-friendly habits and in time your carbon footprint can be reduced.
At the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. Governments and leaders around the world are realizing the need to reduce the carbon footprint of the human race. Although there has been some opposition, especially from the United States, the majority of the world is joining the fight to combat climate change. A company called The Ocean Cleanup is even attempting to clean up the Great pacific garbage patch.
You as an individual can do your part in combating climate change and reducing your carbon footprint. A few simple ways are listed below, however there are many changes you can make to reduce your carbon footprint.
Reduce the amount you drive and if possible, change to an electric or hybrid vehicle. Walk as much as you can or use a bicycle. Try to carpool to help reduce the number of cars on the road and try to drive less frequently.
Reduce the amount of electricity you use. Switch off lights and appliances that are not frequently used and try to change your bulbs to energy saving or LED bulbs. Insulate your home so that you can reduce the amount of energy required to heat or cool your home. Install solar panels if possible, to reduce your reliance on power grids which burn fossil fuels to produce electricity.
Eat locally produced, sustainable and organic foods. Try to buy food items that have taken the least amount of travel time to get to your supermarket. Try to buy foods that were farmed through sustainable farming methods. Buy foods from local farmers markets or community gardens. Include fresh fruits and vegetables in your daily meals and avoid processed foods, canned foods and red meat. Reduce the amount of food you waste.
Reduce the amount of water you use. Have quicker showers, put bigger, less frequent loads in the dishwasher and washing machine. Water your garden at night. Buy fewer plastic bottles of water.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Reduce the amount that you purchase and reduce your waste. Reuse items as much as possible instead of throwing it away. Recycle as much as you can, especially plastics, paper, aluminum cans and glass. Dispose of your e-waste and batteries in the correct way to avoid it becoming a hazard to the environment.
Plant Trees.
A single tree absorbs one ton of carbon dioxide in its lifetime. If you live in an apartment and cannot plant a tree yourself, find a community initiative in your area. There are also plenty of organizations that will plant trees on your behalf and most can be done online without you getting your hands dirty.
There are even apps that plant trees for you just by using them:
Ecosia – Ecosia is a search engine that uses 80% of its ad revenues to plant trees. It is available as an extension to chrome. Every search actually removes CO2 from the atmosphere because they use their profits to plant trees, and their servers run on 100% renewable energy. A search engine that can reduce your carbon footprint. What an amazing start to an eco-friendly future.
Forest – The Forest app helps you plan downtime from your phone to help you focus on the important things you need to do with your day. Every time you plan some off time you get rewarded with a virtual tree. Once you have collected enough virtual trees you can transform your savings to plant a real tree somewhere. That way you can reduce your electricity consumption and your carbon footprint.
Carbon Neutral.
To become ‘carbon-neutral’ means that you must plant as many trees as necessary while reducing your bad emission habits, to completely erase your carbon footprint. This is no easy task and but it is a goal that each and everyone of us should strive every day to achieve to safeguard our future. Do some research into the many ways you can reduce your carbon footprint and start implementing them in your day to day life. You might be surprised to find that once you start living an eco-friendly life you won’t want to go back to your old ways.
Little changes today. Big impact tomorrow.
Sources:
Comments