Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Politics/Social Issues - Social Issues - General

By: IzzyDuncan 22-Feb-2011

Introduction:

Your carbon footprint is the amount of the Earth's resources you use in a day. Power, energy and the amount of water you use are all part of the general footprint. The amount of waste you produce, including the air used and the volume of trash you dispose of over the day, also are part of your overall footprint.

Reducing the general size of your footprint takes just a small effort every day. The more conservation, the smaller the print.

Reduce Using Your Car

Reducing your transportation Earth footprint is important to both lower the amount of fossil fuel use and restrict the amount of particulate matter and carbon monoxide released into the atmosphere.

Lowering the amount of gasoline used each day also reduces the amount of refining needed to produce gas. This secondary pollution and energy use also contributes to your personal footprint.

Savings include car pooling, riding public transportation, walking and riding your bike to work or school.

Reduce Water Use

Water purification and processing uses energy and the physical use of the water reduces the amount of clean water available on the planet. Clean water is scarce for most countries in the world and pollution in the form of oil pollution and trash reduce the amount of clean, usable drinking water for all nations.

Reducing the use of water at home includes shorter showers, running full loads of wash in machines and full loads of dishes in the electric dishwasher.

Landscaping your yard with native plants and drought resistant plants also helps save water. Green lawns are something that are unnatural for most parts of the United States. Transforming the lawn into a natural landscape reduces more than half of your yearly water use. Not only do you save water, you save money.

Less Appliance Use

Use a hand-crank can opener, cut your own meat without the help of an electric knife, mash your own potatoes without a food mixer and brush your teeth without the help of electricity and an electric toothbrush. All of these are small savings when combined together add up to big savings.

Reduce your use of interior heat and air conditioning by wearing a sweater when inside during winter months and removing some clothing during summer months during hot weather. Close windows in the morning and leave them closed until the summer evening hours. Block out sunshine during the summer during the day to reduce the interior heat in the house. In the winter, invite sunlight in during the day and use closed blinds or draperies to keep the day heat in at night.

Home insulation is important to reduce your footprint and the amount of heat used in the winter and air during the summer. Replacing home windows or using drapes with insulated linings reduces the amount of air and heat used.

Buy Fewer Clothes

Clothing also adds space to your footprint. Fabric production uses extensive amounts of water and also electricity. Transportation costs to take the raw goods to the manufacturer and then to stores also add to the footprint for clothing sales.

Massive amounts of clothing are produced each year and more than half of the clothing purchased each year are discarded. This creates a cycle of high energy use.

Rather than buying faddish clothing, select clothing with a more universal design. This allows you to wear the clothing for a longer period of time.

Discover retro fashion and wear vintage clothing to recycle clothing items. Share clothing with your peers so your fashion wardrobe adds more interest, without actually purchasing more clothing items.

Eat Fresh, Local Food

Farms use water for crops and animals. Large agricultural production also creates pollution from pesticide run-off and production of meat and poultry. Large controlled-feeeding operations pollute soil, water and the air.

Purchasing vegetables, fruit and meat and poultry from small local farms and ranches, reduce the amount of pollution from large-scale operations and reduce your carbon footprint.

Buying local food and produce means goods need not use gasoline to transport goods to far-flung markets. Local farm markets and small groceries offer a choice of local food stuffs.

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Comments

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pamperedpen 2/5/2012
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Thanks for the list of ways to reduce your carbon footprint. H5
Belafonte 2/24/2011
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Great list for people who are trying to stay green!! I hope me people try to reduce their footprint!