The carbon footprint refers to how much pollution you are creating because of your lifestyle. It also means how much unnecessary power you are using in your day to day life. Global warming has become a serious problem today leading to changes in temperature, extinction of ecosystems and increase in the sea water level. Pollution and overuse of non renewable resources of energy is the main cause of global warming. Unless we don’t take global warming and related issues seriously we don’t have a sustainable future.
To reduce your carbon footprint you must understand the various activities and the causes leading to the release of the green house gases in the atmosphere. Using electrical devices, throwing away waste without recycling, burning of fossil fuels, all leads to increasing your carbon footprint on the planet. Hence you can come up with ways in which you can lower these activities and use lesser energy and power.
You can start by getting your home properly insulated so that heat does not escape. The more the heat escapes the more power you will use to heat your home. Hence it is better to ensure that you have installed double glaze windows, your loft is insulated and there is no chance of draughts coming through your doors.
You can also start saving fuel and emitting lesser pollution if you start taking public transport to your place of work. In case your destination is close to your house then you can even go on a bicycle and save on fuel. If you know people going to the same destination at more or less the same time, then you can even share the public transport. It is these small changes from individuals that can collectively sum to reduce the carbon footprint on the planet. Instead of cooking food by burning fossil fuels you can now consider options such as solar cooker which are as efficient and less expensive in the long run.
And you can also contribute in your own way to the environment. You can use as less paper as possible and communicate with people through email and teleconferencing. Using less paper leads to less cutting of trees. You can even consider recycling your plastic goods instead of trashing them in the dump. Leave a lesser carbon footprint by thinking of innovative ways of using old things in more ways than one. Even in case of heating water, heat only that amount of water that you actually need.
