First, let me explain what a carbon footprint is. A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon emissions that are released into the air, carbon emissions are carbon dioxide. A carbon footprint is a label for one person, a group, or even a state, country, or the world!
Carbon footprints differ for different people, because different people release carbon emissions in different ways, and in different intervals. For instance, if you drive a car a lot, your carbon footprint is higher than someone who bikes to a lot of places instead of driving. The ways we heat and cool our homes, transport ourselves, and go about our daily lives in general can either raise or reduce your carbon footprint.
The three Rs of being green can help to reduce your carbon footprint. The three Rs are Reuse, Replenish and Recycle. Reuse means anything you have, whether it be shoes or clothes or skis or cars, should be reused unless they are unusable. The US throws away about 250 million tons of waste each year, much of which is not broken or unusable, it's just been replaced. If people reused these things, or at least recycled them, our waste would go down by a lot.
The next piece is recycling. Recycling is important because it is a form of reusing. Paper and plastic can be recycled all over the world, and though it only takes a little effort on our part, it can make a big difference. Recycling these things can result in reducing of
non-hazardous waste, a cleaner environment, more recycled products, and the slowing of landfill building.
Finally, we come to replenish. This comes down to this. If you have to take something, such as cut down a tree or bush, give something back too. If you cut down a tree, plant one elsewhere. This way the Earth's natural resources are not wasted because we didn't plan for the future.
Well, that's it for today. I hope you learned something about what a carbon footprint is. Greenhound out.
No comments:
Post a Comment