Hello! So, as we all start to emerge from our homes and out into the world again, I wanted to talk about Carbon Footprints – what they are, how they can be reduced and why they are important. Right now, everyone wants to get back to ‘normal’, and I for one am concerned that this will mean more cars on the road, over-consumption and over-production. So, I thought it would be good to discuss our impact on the world, and to think about how we can reduce this impact as we move forward.
A Carbon Footprint is defined as ‘the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organisation or community’. This is something that each person is accountable for based on what they eat, how they travel, where they live and how they buy. Virtually everything we do releases an amount of carbon, it just depends what that thing is to determine the quantity of carbon. Making clothes produces carbon, driving a car produces carbon, heating your home produces carbon – and all these things add up.
Why is this bad? Carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases, trap heat inside the atmosphere, which causes global warming. This has been happening gradually for a long time, as ‘humans have increased the abundance of carbon dioxide by 45 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Age’ (NASA). So basically, the atmosphere is used to putting up with this. However, water systems, the carbon cycle and others are not. We rely on these cycles and systems to survive, and because of our affect on the atmosphere, these are changing rapidly. Too rapidly. According to NASA, ‘half of the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in the last 300 years has occurred since 1980, and one quarter of it since 2000’ – so significant changes are happening very quickly.
So basically, in order to save the planet, we have to release a LOT less CO2 (and all the other greenhouse gases). In an ideal scenario, we would all become carbon neutral, where we produce next to no CO2. However, right now, that is very difficult, because it would involve stopping using petrol altogether and swapping to a renewable source, which isn’t entirely feasible at the moment due to the supply chain. So what do we do? Lower it as much as we can. A great way to see where you’re starting from is to use a Carbon Footprint calculator. The WWF one is the one that I used, which I’ll link down below. Based on that, you can look at how you can improve, and if it is doable, start making changes.
I thought it would be fun to show you how I did on this! My Carbon Footprint came out as 101%, with the percentages being divided like so:
- Food – 14%
- Home – 34%
- Travel – 25%
- Stuff – 27%
The quiz estimated my carbon footprint at 10.6 tonnes, and the 2020 target is 10.5 tonnes – so not too bad right? Yes and no. I’m really happy about the food category because it’s something I try to work really hard on by being vegetarian and buying locally and seasonally. I’m also pretty happy with travel, as this will be lower once I feel comfortable getting on buses again! I normally use a park and ride service to get to work, but at the moment this is not really doable for me, so I’m driving more. The home category is somewhat out of my control because I live with my parents, however we are looking at getting solar panels, so I feel pretty good about this too. The one I’m not so happy about is ‘stuff’. I recently bought a new phone, which is one of the reasons that this is so high. In the future, I want to look at buying second hand electronics so that this has less of an impact on my carbon footprint.
Overall, this isn’t too bad, but we can all improve! I hope that this was somewhat helpful, and I encourage you to have a long, hard look at your Carbon Footprint.
Sources:
Waste Makes Waste 