Watch Your Step
How understanding our individual carbon footprint can allow us to make the radical changes necessary to protect our environment.
Written by Samantha Baxley | Photos by Adam Vincent
While the sun rose, I watched from the window as its golden rays peeked out from behind the horizon, bouncing off the delicate snowflakes cascading softly from the dark sky.
My phone dings: School has been canceled for the third day this week. A thick layer of snow rests heavily on the branches of the trees outside, where it’s a frigid 19 degrees. But I didn’t have to brave the snow. I spent the day lounging around in shorts and a cotton t-shirt, content to watch the snow fall from inside my warm house with electric heaters cranked up in every room.
I relaxed, insulated from the frosty air outside, not giving a second thought to the carbon emissions emanating from my toasty house as I cranked up the knob on the thermostat.
Those hard-working wall heaters require power and, in combination with the other electrical appliances in my house, I used about 12,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity last year.
On average, your household probably uses the same amount of electricity as mine, or approximately 8.5 metric tons — over 1,300 pounds — of carbon each year.
To put that into perspective, it would take 141 tree seedlings, growing for 10 years, to trap the carbon emissions created by my home’s electrical use alone. With over 138 million households estimated in the United States — that’s over 19.5 billion seedlings per year.
While climate change has become hyper-relevant to today’s society, it’s a wildly complicated conversation. So, if you’re wondering why you should care about carbon emissions and what an abundance of carbon in our ecosystem means, don’t worry, you’re not alone.
For starters, all of the species present on Earth today developed under very different carbon dioxide and temperature conditions, according to Charles Barnhart, an assistant professor at Western Washington University’s Huxley College.
Carbon and other greenhouse gases trap infrared radiation in the atmosphere, resulting in more energy in the system, Barnhart says. That additional energy is shown to enhance weather phenomenons.
“Our choices, what we consume, what we eat, how we spend our dollars, in terms of influencing change, all of those things matter and they add up. We do individually add up to the scale of the problem.” — Jill MacIntyre Witt.
“Stronger hurricanes, stronger wind storms, more severe drought, more severe rain. Everything’s amped up a little bit with that extra energy in the system,” Barnhart said.
The effects of that extra energy may feel like a distant dilemma to many, but the reality is, we can already feel the effects of climate change.
Since 1981, we have seen an average increase in global temperature of .32 degrees Fahrenheit per decade. This increase is more than two times greater than before 1981. Following 2001, we have also seen 19 of the 20 warmest years on record.
While .32 degrees may seem insubstantial to us, Barnhart says it’s incredibly fast from a geological perspective and the rate that it is increasing is what’s important to note.
Global temperature is steadily rising, however, that doesn’t mean you won’t ever experience a frigid snowy winter day again. We will still experience cold weather but the baseline for temperature will be raised, according to Nick Bond, a research scientist for the University of Washington and climatologist for the state of Washington.
The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have also been changing rapidly, losing over 300 gigatons of ice per year combined as the Earth warms.
Now if you, like me, don’t know what a gigaton is off the top of your head don’t worry. The Washington Post estimates just one gigaton is equivalent to 400,000 Olympic size swimming pools.
This melting ice contributes to increasing sea levels, and these ice sheets play an essential role in regulating our global temperature.
Ice is like a mirror reflecting the sun’s rays back into space, so less ice means fewer rays are being reflected. This creates a feedback loop, according to Barnhart, meaning as we lose ice the ocean absorbs more heat, increasing global temperature — causing the loss of even more ice.
The greatest contributors to increasing global temperature are greenhouse gases. Almost everything we do and use today is producing or has produced greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2016, Western Washington University used over 132 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, producing almost 94,000 metric tons of carbon. To put that number into perspective, it takes a cumulative 16,000 homes annually to use the same amount of electricity.
On an even larger scale, Amazon reported CO2 emissions totaling 44.4 million metric tons. This is equivalent to the yearly electrical use of 7.5 million homes.
With such a startling difference between corporate emissions and an individual’s, it can be difficult to fathom what one person can do to help.
“I just feel like a jerk if I bring a steak over to a barbecue and everybody’s having roasted cauliflower. Social status is a huge motivator for behavioral change,” Barnhart said.
When I think about my carbon footprint in comparison to Western’s or Amazon’s, mine feels microscopic. It’s challenging to understand how my individual contribution to a global problem is anything more than a drop in the bucket.
In the U.S., our personal carbon footprint averages out to around 20 metric tons per person, in comparison, the world average is four. These numbers will vary depending on the source as it is not a perfect science.
Using the Carbon Footprint calculator, I found my carbon emissions to be approximately 20.29 metric tons. This isn’t an exact number but it does provide a rough estimate as well as an in-depth look at different areas of my life.
For me, it was most interesting to see that just one of the flights I took last year from Seattle to Alaska added an additional 2.73 metric tons of carbon to my footprint and that the 11,000 miles I drove represented over six metric tons of carbon added to the atmosphere.
Those are the big-ticket items, but the small contributors matter too. One pound of beef represents over six pounds of carbon emissions. Switching one light bulb from incandescent to LED will save over 37 kilowatt-hours of electricity, saving money and reducing a household’s carbon emissions by approximately 58 pounds per year.
“Our choices, what we consume, what we eat, how we spend our dollars, in terms of influencing change, all of those things matter and they add up. We do individually add up to the scale of the problem,” said Jill MacIntyre Witt, an instructor at Western Washington University and author of the “Climate Justice Field Manual.”
There are over 329 million people in the U.S., and if we each changed one light bulb we would reduce U.S. carbon emissions by over 8.5 million metric tons.
By changing our individual actions, we make considerable improvements to our personal footprint and can inspire others to modify their behaviors resulting in a broader impact.
“I just feel like a jerk if I bring a steak over to a barbecue and everybody’s having roasted cauliflower. Social status is a huge motivator for behavioral change,” Barnhart said.
Using the Carbon Footprint Calculator allowed me to see which of my behaviors were the greatest polluters and make changes so that my actions are more in-line with my values. Reducing the miles I drive by taking the bus more, changing my light bulbs, and turning the thermostat down are all ways I am reducing my carbon footprint.
Now, as the wind roars outside my window, rattling tree branches once layered with snow, I reach for a blanket instead of the thermostat.
