Your Carbon Footprint

Most people are sensitive to the fact that their daily
living, in some way, contributes to the pollution of
the environment.

We take in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide (CO2)
and emissions from factories, cars, and mining
operations are but a few of the sources of CO2.

The CO2 gases get trapped in the earth’s atmosphere,
causing unhealthy air that simply has no where to go.
The effect that each of us has on the environment is
called our Carbon Footprint.

Many factors contribute to our individual carbon
footprint, including where we live, the size of our
home, how old our appliances are, what we drive and
how much air travel we do.

While there is no way to eliminate our carbon
footprint to slow climate change; there are things we
can do to reduce the size of our "shoe".

In order to reduce our carbon footprint, we must first
know what size we are. There are carbon calculators
online (www.carboncounter.org) that are simple to use
and will quickly show you how much your carbon burden
is.

By knowing what our personal impact is, we can then
work on reducing it. There are many organizations that
continually endeavor to offset and mitigate the
damages by CO2 emissions, including wind power,
reforestation projects and solar power projects,
including Conservation International, Nature.org and
Carbon Counter.org.

Working together to individually reduce our personal
carbon footprint can only be good for our planet, our
future and the future of generations to come.