Most of the big activities, we are familiar with: driving, using electricity and water. It may not seem like much, but multiplying one person’s usage times millions of people, we can begin to see the impact. Certainly you aren’t the only one using a dishwasher or watering your lawn.
The solution can seem like too big a problem. Don’t look at it as “what can one person do to stop global warming” but see it in terms of millions of people making little changes in their usage of fossil fuels. No one expects you to build a grass hut and walk barefoot six miles to the stream to carry buckets of water. Everyone, however, can make small changes in their energy usage for the good of the planet. In fact, according to PayItGreen.org, something as simple as switching to electronic bills and payments can reduce the average household’s greenhouse gas emission by 171 pounds each year.
Where Do I Start to Reduce My Carbon Footprint?
Before beginning to make changes in your routine, it’s helpful to begin by assessing your current usage. Do a Google search for “carbon footprint” and you’ll find pages of websites with quizzes to get you started. Answer a few questions and the website will tell you how well you’re doing now and give you suggestions for lowering your impact on the environment. Even if your footprint is low, that’s not a free pass to go wild. There’s always more that can be done.
It’s Not Just Your Direct Usage That Uses Energy
According to Maggie L. Walser in Encyclopedia of Earth, there are two levels of footprints, primary and secondary. Primary footprints are things you are doing, like driving your car and turning on lights. Secondary footprints are more like a chain of events leading to you. For example, when you purchase produce from the grocery store, chances are that food was grown with pesticides, processed at a plant and put in wrappers, then transported by truck to the grocery store. All those processes between you and the farmer are your secondary footprint. Something as simple as purchasing produce from local farmers markets will help you lessen the impact. This applies to all foods with a lot of packaging and anything that uses plastic (such as bottled water).
What is Carbon Neutral
The ultimate goal, notes the website Carbon Footprint Facts, is to “reduce your greenhouse gas emissions to zero.” Challenging? Yes. Impossible? No.
What are some simple ways to reduce my Carbon Footprint?
- Switching to paperless bills and paying bills online as mentioned above.
- Not only recycle, but purchase items made with recycled materials.
- Check with your local electric company to see if they have any programs available for alternative energy sources. WE Energies in Wisconsin & Michigan has one such program. Residents have the option of paying a few dollars more on their bill each month and having a certain portion of their energy use come from the WE Energies wind turbines.
- Eat less meat
- Plant shade trees to help keep your home cooler in summer, warmer in winter.
- Use natural cleaning supplies. Some you can make yourself.
Working Together to Reduce Greenhouse Gas
If everyone made one small change today, we’d be well on our way to Carbon Neutral. Maybe for one person, it will be a rain bucket to water their lawn. For another person it’s composting pet waste or purchasing energy efficient appliances. Whatever you can add into your life right now with little effort is where you should start. Once that becomes second nature, add something else. All of us working on a small piece of the problem really does help because it’s the cumulative result that matters.
 |
