Your Carbon Footprint and How to Reduce It
A person's individual impact is called their carbon footprint. A carbon footprint is “the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product”. You'll find many calculators of carbon footprints on the internet. One of the most popular is from The Nature Conservancy. Calculate your carbon footprint by using The Nature Conservancy Carbon Footprint Calculator.
Once you know your carbon footprint you can look for ways to reduce it. You can put yourself on a carbon diet, which will reduce the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gases (most notably CO2) production. Ways to reduce your carbon footprint are as follows (some are easy and some are not so easy):
- reduce plane travel
- plant a tree
- reduce the number of trips in your car; consolidate errands
- look into cars with better gas mileage or hybrids
- precycling
- eat less meat and dairy products
- use reusable bags when shopping
- use Energy Star appliances; you can find them here
- learn the 3 R's of being green
- eat more locally grown food
- freecycling
- eat less processed and packaged food
- learn how to compost
- get a programmable thermostat
All of the above reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are created and emitted into the air. This is better for the environment and for every living thing on Earth. Everyone can do something to reduce their carbon footprint.
