Chapter 19 : Carbon Footprints
What is your carbon footprint?
Your carbon footprint is the total amount of carbon gasses or ‘greenhouse’ emissions that you yourself will produce in your lifetime. In other words, every time you drive your car you are burning fossil fuels in the form of gasoline increasing your carbon footprint. Every time you buy foods that were produced or harvested in factories that use fossil fuels, this also effects your overall carbon footprint.
While it is very difficult to actually calculate a number to go along with your carbon footprint, it is important that people become much more away of the impact that they personally are having on the earth’s environment. By continuing to think about what you do on a daily basis that adds to your carbon footprint, perhaps you will be able to make slight changes to your lifestyle that will lessen the grand total of carbon emissions you produce in your life.
5 Simple Tips to Improve Your Carbon Footprint:
1.Buy local whenever possible-avoid sticking only to mass produced food and try getting your fruits and vegetables at a local market instead.
2.Unplug your charger from the wall when you are not using it-even if your phone is not plugged in, leaving your charger in the wall is wasting electricity not to mention can also be dangerous!
3.Use a laptop computer rather than desktop computer-laptops have batteries in them which means you can use about half the energy for twice the time on your computer!
4.Carpool-as nice as it is to be able to drive yourself around, see if you can get a ride with a classmate or colleague so that there is one less car emitting green-house gasses on the road that day.
5.Try using rechargeable batteries for remote controls and other necessary household items-not only will this keep you from throwing out batteries every time they die, but it will save you the money you would ordinarily spend on new ones!
6.Take a shower-showers use about 1/5 of the energy needed for a bath
7.Wash with cold water-when doing the dishes or wiping down the table try using cold water rather than hot to conserve energy
8.Avoid using disposable silverware and plates-while it seems much more convenient to be able to throw away all the dishes rather than washing them, this means that all those utensils will end up in a land fill somewhere.
9.Make sure that your dishwasher and clothes washer are full before running them-this means that you will be avoiding unnecessary extra loads.
10.Make sure all your household cleaners are non-toxic-many of the chemicals in glass cleaners and dishwashing soap can be harmful to the environment when they flow down the drain. Make sure yours are organic!
11.Turn of your air conditioner when you are not at home-as nice as it is to walk into a nice cool living room, it isn’t worth the extra energy you are wasting while its running unnecessarily.
12.Avoid using the thermostat unnecessarily! If you are just a bit chilly, put on a sweatshirt rather than cranking up the heat!
13.Bring a reusable water bottle around with you so that you don’t end up buying 3 plastic ones throughout the day.
14.Recycle! Don’t throw away all those empty bottles after a party! Make sure that rather than filling up a landfill, they can be repurposed and reused again!
15.Don’t forget to turn off the lights when you leave a room!
I know many people like the lifestyle they live now, don’t want to go vegan and would rather not shower only using cold water. However, even if you don’t want to drastically change your daily routines, just being aware of your carbon footprint and thinking about it every time you leave a light on can make all the difference!
什么是“你的碳足迹”？
你的碳足迹是你在一生中产生碳气体或温室气体的总量。换句话说，你每次开车时燃烧以汽油为形式的化石燃料，便会增加你的碳足迹。你每次去购买食物，而这些食物由使用化石燃料的工厂生产，这也影响你的整体碳足迹。
虽然算出碳足迹的数量确实是非常困难的，但却很重要，人们对于个人影响地球环境的意识变得越来越淡薄。通过持续思考每天做什么会导致碳足迹的增加，也许你会稍稍转变生活方式，这将减少你在生活中产生的碳排放量。
一些简单的行为可以减少您的碳足迹：
1.尽可能地在当地市场购买当地的食品，并尝试在当地市场上买水果和蔬菜。
2.当你不使用、或是即使你的手机没有插入充电器时，请从墙上拔下充电器，充电器插着不用会浪费电，更不用说这样可能是危险的！
3.使用一台笔记本电脑，而不是台式电脑，笔记本电脑上有电池，这意味着你可以节省比台式电脑少一半的能量。
4.和自己开车相比，拼车也是个不错的选择。可以试着与同学或同事拼车，这样那天的马路上便会减少一辆会排放温室气体的小轿车。
5.尝试使用充电的遥控器和其他必备的家居用品，这样不仅免去了每次电池没电要扔电池的麻烦，也可以省下买新电池的钱！
6.淋浴时，使用洗澡所需要的约1 / 5的能量。
7.洗碗或擦桌子时用冷水洗脸，冷水比热水更加节约能源
8.尽量避免使用一次性的餐具和盘子，虽然他们在用完后可以直接扔掉不用洗，可这也意味着它们在使用后需要被填埋在某个地方。
9.确保你的洗碗机和洗衣机在运行前都是满的，这意味着避免不必要的额外负荷。
10.确保你所有的家用清洁剂是无毒的，许多玻璃清洁剂的化学物质和洗碗肥皂排到底下后会对环境有害。请确保你用的是有机家用清洁剂！
11.离家外出时请关掉空调。虽然从外面走进凉爽的客厅是非常舒服的，可这产生了不必要的额外能量，当空调在无人的房间运行时，你正在浪费能源。
12.避免不必要地使用温控器！如果你只是有点冷，请穿上一件运动衫而不是启动温控器！
13.带一个可重复使用的水瓶在你身边，这样你就不会到最后一天买三瓶塑料瓶灌装水。
14.回收！派对结束后不要把那些空瓶子扔掉！确保它们可以被重复使用而不是填满一个垃圾填埋场！
15.离开房间时别忘了关灯！
我知道很多人喜欢他们现在生活的生活方式，不想做纯素食主义者，也不想用冷水淋浴。然而，即使你不想彻底改变你的日常生活，只要想想碳足迹，想想每次人走了灯还亮着，这些就可以使生活大有不同！