What is your carbon footprint?
Hannah H | 17.11.2005 16:03 | Ecology | Cambridge
Our climate is changing. Droughts, storms, changes in ocean currents and temperatures these are just some of the effects of global warming. These have devastating effects on ecological systems and human communities.
I went along to find out what my footprint was and why it mattered on Tuesday the 15th of November at CB1.
Our climate is changing. Droughts, storms, changes in ocean currents and temperatures these are just some of the effects of global warming. These have devastating effects on ecological systems and human communities.
At the meeting Linda gave us a crash-course in the science behind climate change, highlighting the fact that increased carbon dioxide emissions are a result the human activity of burning fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide acts as a 'greenhouse gas' trapping the suns warmth within our atmosphere causing the climate to change.
Cambridge Carbon Footprints Andy Brown revealled that the average UK citizen produces 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. This level of emissions is unsustianable and will result in environmental catastrophy. A sustainable world average per person would be 2.5 tonnes a year. Worryingly the government aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to just 4.5 tonnes/ person/ year by 2050, which illustrates perfectly how our government is not taking this issue seriously.
So what can we do? Cambridge Carbon Footprints asks of us some probing questions about our lifestyle. How much do you fly? How far does your food travel to get to you? Is you tv on standby? Who do you buy your electricity from? By asking ourselves these questions we become aware of the areas in our lives where can cut our carbon emissions. These include using energy saving light bulbs, buying electricity from good energy, getting on our bikes, to name but a few.Not only do we need to change our lifestyles we also need to campaign to put pressure on governments to legislate and big business to start taking this issue seriously and cut carbon emissions.
To choose not to take this seriously will be at the pearl of humanity. Global warming is likely to lead to an increase in the number of infectious diseases and respiratory illnesses. It will also raise the risk and severity of flooding, and reduce the availability of clean drinking water to millions of people.
'A society can be judged on whether men plant trees whose shade they will not sit in.' If we do not act now they may not even be any body left to judge us.
http://www.campaigncc.org/: Campaigning about climate change.
http://www.randall.e7even.com/: Cambridge Carbon Footprints
http://www.good-energy.co.uk/ : Good Energy.
Our climate is changing. Droughts, storms, changes in ocean currents and temperatures these are just some of the effects of global warming. These have devastating effects on ecological systems and human communities.
At the meeting Linda gave us a crash-course in the science behind climate change, highlighting the fact that increased carbon dioxide emissions are a result the human activity of burning fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide acts as a 'greenhouse gas' trapping the suns warmth within our atmosphere causing the climate to change.
Cambridge Carbon Footprints Andy Brown revealled that the average UK citizen produces 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. This level of emissions is unsustianable and will result in environmental catastrophy. A sustainable world average per person would be 2.5 tonnes a year. Worryingly the government aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to just 4.5 tonnes/ person/ year by 2050, which illustrates perfectly how our government is not taking this issue seriously.
So what can we do? Cambridge Carbon Footprints asks of us some probing questions about our lifestyle. How much do you fly? How far does your food travel to get to you? Is you tv on standby? Who do you buy your electricity from? By asking ourselves these questions we become aware of the areas in our lives where can cut our carbon emissions. These include using energy saving light bulbs, buying electricity from good energy, getting on our bikes, to name but a few.Not only do we need to change our lifestyles we also need to campaign to put pressure on governments to legislate and big business to start taking this issue seriously and cut carbon emissions.
To choose not to take this seriously will be at the pearl of humanity. Global warming is likely to lead to an increase in the number of infectious diseases and respiratory illnesses. It will also raise the risk and severity of flooding, and reduce the availability of clean drinking water to millions of people.
'A society can be judged on whether men plant trees whose shade they will not sit in.' If we do not act now they may not even be any body left to judge us.
http://www.campaigncc.org/: Campaigning about climate change. http://www.randall.e7even.com/: Cambridge Carbon Footprints http://www.good-energy.co.uk/ : Good Energy.
Hannah H
