Carbon Footprint:

Your carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases you and all of your activities produce in a year.  This is measured in tons (that’s right, TONS) of carbon dioxide.  The average American footprint is 26.5 tons.  That is 20% of total annual CO2 emissions for the entire planet!

Our carbon footprint includes emissions from industry, agriculture, transportation, forestry, power generation and buildings.  For Americans, this adds up very quickly.  Our infrastructure has been built with too much sprawl – we have to drive to get everywhere.  We drive large SUV’s.  We have many electronic luxury items, and so on.  You can easily see why America has the largest output of CO2.   We can learn from areas like western Europe, where homes and stores are close together, cars are small (if needed at all) and CO2 output per capita is half that of Americans.

It is easy to find lots of reasons not to try to reduce our footprint. Instead of focusing on all those reasons, we would better serve our children’s future and better be able to look them in the eye one day and tell them that we did everything we could by trying to do what we can to help the situation.

We also just might help to create a cultural revolution where it is no longer cool to be seen with a plastic, disposable water bottle or a plastic grocery bag.  It might be much cooler to have a garden and a hybrid and pack a lunch in reusable container.  This day is coming (probably sooner than we know it) and by doing our part, we just might help it come in time to really make a difference.  The more you do and other people see what you do, the more other people begin to make changes. 

Before you know it, business and industries begin to catch on and make changes, too.  And ultimately, our country’s leaders begin to take it seriously because the citizens do.  We cannot delay taking personal responsibility by waiting for our leaders to make laws for tougher industry regulations; we start by making changes in our own lives and communicating them to the people around us.  There might just come a day when one day, your child looks you back in the eye and thanks you.