Why Is Understanding Your Carbon Footprint Important?
There are still many people who have no concept of what a carbon footprint is or how it is produced. The impact we are having to the growing problem of greenhouse gases adds to the whole global warming crisis. Our day to day lives are led in such a way that we simply don’t have the time or inclination to stop and wonder how our actions affect the larger picture.
I’ll give you a simple personal example of how my family takes energy use for granted. In our house we have multiple digital clocks and they all run 24 hours a day, one in each room - the microwave, the conventional oven, the CD player, the stereo and in each bedroom all has a clock and each one is sucking up passive energy we could be saving, and we don’t give it a thought. We don’t seem to mind wasting resources and assume it as one of the advantages of living in a modern society. Some people might be a little bit shocked if they were to find out exactly how much carbon emissions they are producing per year, not to mention an indication of how much it’s costing them and how simple it might be to save a few bucks and the environment at the same time.
If You Don’t Know It, You Can’t Change It
The previous heading sums up a whole range of human instincts and precisely describes one of the roadblocks in front of those trying to educate people on the importance of reducing our carbon footprint. It only takes a gentle reminder that there are consequences for the actions taken on a daily basis that people begin to realise that there is a need to change.
It’s not until you’re told that running your car produces around 2 ½ tonnes of carbon dioxide per year that you begin to realise that this could be a problem. You can then take the challenge to lower next year’s number. This now gives you a goal that is possible to quantify and track, giving you a proper aim. There will be no way of definitively knowing the damage you are doing with your carbon footprint without some means of calculation. It will be impossible to gauge future levels in the effort to produce less.
The fact that we each stand to get a direct benefit in terms of cost to reducing our carbon footprint should have people more than a little interested. That cost benefit is that you save money! The word will continue to leak out while, hopefully, carbon dioxide doesn’t.
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