 |
| 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.
Comments
Post a Comment