REDUCING AN INDIVIDUAL'S CARBON FOOTPRINT

A footprint- Jomo Beach, South La Estates, La-Accra

In my last post I touched on how an individual builds up their carbon footprint. In this post I am going to profile how an individual can reduce their carbon footprint, and thereby, eventually and cumulatively, a clean and natural environment, globally.

Carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide emissions associated with the activities of an individual, corporation, house, industry, country etc. It is measured in CO₂ metric tonnes per year. Notwithstanding the definition of carbon footprint, other greenhouse gases are measured as such.

How you, as an individual, build up carbon footprint; there are two ways. The two are the direct way and indirect way. The direct one is when your activity directly generates greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. The indirect one is when you consume a product whose production involved the emission of greenhouse gas.

Greenhouse gases are the gases in the atmosphere that cause the lower atmosphere to be warm. A warming that is causing icebergs to melt.  A warming that is causing drought. A warming that is causing sea levels to rise. A warming that is causing unprecedented rise in atmospheric temperatures in recent times. Some of these gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.  

Global warming has become a topical issue which to my mind ought to be dealt with at the individual level as a starting point. For the individual to reduce their carbon footprint, they have to start shifting from the use of things that emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to the use of environmentally friendly things. The following are some of the things an individual can do to reduce their carbon footprint:

TRANSPORTATION  

Fuel combustion in vehicles is a major cause of carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere. When using your personal car, you personally accumulate personal carbon footprint, especially the more you use your car. To reduce your personal carbon footprint use the public conveyance system from time to time. Another suggestion is for you to do short journey on your two feet- walk. Yet another way to reduce your carbon footprint is to ride bicycle sometimes. These days cars that do not use fossil fuel are being introduced into the system, you may opt for that.

ENERGY

Without energy there is no life, natural or even man-made. Man-made energy is what we use in cooking. Energy is what we use in warming our homes. Energy is what we use in keeping our homes and offices cold when temperature is high. We use energy in many other ways for our comfort and wellbeing. However, there are clean energy and unclean energy. Clean energy is energy produced through environmentally friendly ways. The production of unclean energy leave in its trail emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, thus creating global warming. To reduce your personal carbon footprint, as a result of energy use, you need to as much as possible use clean energy. Clean energy is energy produced through environmentally friendly resources. Such energy is derived from the sun, wind etc. When it comes to the use of bulbs in the house, to reduce your personal carbon footprint if you are using incandescent lamp move on to compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) or better still light emitting diodes (LED), if you are using CFLmove on to LED.

HOME APPLIANCES

Home appliances are refrigerators, cookers, microwave oven, washing machines, air conditioners etc. Some of these appliances when in use emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Another issue is that in the manufacture of these appliances greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere. Directly or indirectly these gases add to an individual’s carbon footprint. To reduce one’s carbon footprint in this regard, it is advisable to buy appliances that do not emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Some examples are refrigerators and air conditioners that are energy efficient and do not use chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). When using your microwave oven use environmentally friendly containers in cooking instead of plastics that emit chemicals into the atmosphere when heated. Additionally microwave ovens shortens cooking time and saves energy.

PARTING SHOT

In a small way, through this blog, I try to alert people to the environmental situation we as earthlings find ourselves in, and encourage us to get on board to get the environment back on track. I keep using the term “earthling” in my posts because planet Earth is the only habitable place for us, and if we cannot maintain it then we are perhaps heading for extinction! We cannot escape elsewhere. Getting on board means starting the green revolution at the individual level. The revolution ought to be shown and expressed in mind, heart and deed, leading to a clean and balanced natural environment, sustainably.