What can Individuals do to Decrease their carbon footprint?

After identifying that there is clear evidence to show that human activity is causing our planet to warm at an alarming rate. No more time can be wasted, we need to take immediate action.

Reducing waste while traveling:

One way to decrease your individual carbon footprint is by taking public transit, riding a bike or waking to a destination as often as possible. This small step of changing your everyday modes of transportation to walk to work, or take the public metro to your destination is decreasing the carbon emissions.

Even though public transportation is available in most areas, many individuals continue driving their personal motor vehicle. If every individual with a motor vehicle in the US kept their tires properly inflated, we could save 1.2 billion gallons of gas each year. As well as adding new air filer and tune-up can boost the miles per gallon your motor vehicle is getting.

Along with making sure to maintain your vehicle to assure you are getting the maximum miles per gallon to reduce gas waste, there are also more fuel-efficient vehicle options. Electric vehicles and hybrids save on fuel. The ‘2025’s clean car standards’ are to average 54.5 miles per gallon. Most vehicles produced prior to 2015 all have relatively poor gas millage. When looking to buy your next vehicle be sure to look at the miles per gallon, and fuel efficacy of the car. Having a car that is more fuel efficient in return will decrease your carbon footprint.

Reducing waste in the Kitchen:

Although many people do not consider food having a carbon footprint, it does and let me tell you why. Food is a greenhouse gas emission produced from growing, harvesting, processing, transporting, cooking and disposing of the food we eat. The waste from food is a very small contributor to climate change, but it is still a contributor. Some efforts you can take to reduce your “food print” could be making more plant based meals, reducing your food waste, and composting your waste food scraps. When grocery shopping only purchase food your household will eat, in efforts to decrease waste. If you are wasting less food, you will likely be cutting down on energy consumption.

Saving water also reduces carbon pollution. It takes a lot of energy to pump, heat, and treat your water and then transport the clean water to your tap. Simple solutions to decreasing your use of water can be taking a shorter shower and turning off the water tap while you’re brushing your teeth. There are appliances called “Water sense,” and these fixtures are designed to decrease the energy and water consumed.

Being aware of the amount you are consuming of resources, and how much you really need will be very beneficial in our efforts to decrease carbon emissions.

Melissa Denchak, (July 17, 2017), ‘How you can Stop Global Warming,’ NRDC