Some things might not be able to be off of the table for some people, such as driving less, which is oftentimes beyond their control. Someone can’t always choose to drive less because of places that are essential, but might not be close enough to them to be reasonable to make a trip to as often as necessary. An example of somewhere that a person might need to travel to is their place of work. It’s necessary for some jobs to be far away from other things, such as an airport or military base. Also, there can sometimes not be reasonably priced living accommodations nearby, or none at all, which would cause them to have to have a longer commute to work everyday. Another thing that might cause a greater commute distance would be needing to go to a certain store, whether it be for prices, preference, or dietary needs.
An additional thing that might be uncompromisable to some people is limiting their electronic usage. In the modern world, electronic usage is oftentimes essential to most people’s day to day lives. They might be used for  entertainment, communication, work, education,  but oftentimes there is a lot of usage of electronics for the latter two which cannot be adjusted.
Overall, there would need to be a greater change than just people changing their habits, such as the availability of certain resources in shorter distances to all people, in order to decrease emissions caused by commute time. There would also need to be a change in the way that some people have work, education, communication, or entertainment, which isn’t always possible. An alternative solution to these problems might not be to restrict the amount of them that people do, but rather make driving and using electronics less harmful to the environment.

I completely agree. I live a thirty-minute drive away from school, which means I drive five hours total to get to and from school every week. And I can't exactly just not go to school to reduce my carbon emissions. However, I do carpool with two other students to reduce my carbon footprint, but that does not take away from the fact that I must drive to school every day. The electronic thing is additionally a valid point! In this day and age, I use my computer and phone every day. My electronics are how I communicate with others and get my schoolwork done. I can admit that I should probably spend less time on my phone for entertainment, but I do use it for school and to communicate every day. In addition, I think that computers are a much better alternative to paper. With the current rate of deforestation, I do not believe that using my computer is more detrimental than chopping down trees so I can do my Spanish homework.

Fireworks are very frequently used and in heavy, unhealthy amounts. Disneyland itself spends over $50 million on hundreds of thousands of fireworks every single year. Even if they stopped doing that, all over the world on Halloween, Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year, birthdays, weddings, ceremonies, and many more special occasions, fireworks are being used every single year. Have you noticed that gigantic cloud of smoke after the fireworks at an event? That's all the toxic smoke that pollutes the air we breathe. And that's just after a single event you attended. Fireworks contribute to combustion and release greenhouse gasses at the same time. Apart from that, much of the debris from used fireworks is not biodegradable and ends up being left on the ground as litter. A much safer and eco-friendly alternative to fireworks would be using paper confetti poppers or even cannons and blasters for celebrations.

Wow, I never realized fireworks could be so harmful to the environment. Still, to conserve the fun and joy spent watching fireworks, we should instead focus on creating more easily accessible eco-friendly fireworks. Disney developed a soot-free firework that is much better for the environment than most. But, these are sure to be expensive and hard to come by, so if we can make these fireworks accessible and less expensive, then maybe we can enjoy a good fireworks experience. In the meantime, we don’t need to have fireworks on every occasion, big and small. Lastly, we can use alternatives such as laser shows, confetti poppers, and bubble machines.

I completely agree, fireworks are often associated with celebration and joy but we often don't think about the environmental repercussions of them. On one hand, I have seen fireworks bring people together and inspire creativity, but I am also aware that they negatively affect the environment and our air quality. I often see people set off their own fireworks on big events such as the Fourth of July, when others nearby are doing the same thing. Along with finding more eco friendly firework alternatives, I think it would be beneficial to come together with large groups of people when setting off fireworks compared to small groups if there isn't an eco friendly alternative available. This way, the amount of fireworks being used is smaller and the times when we do see fireworks is more magical.

After doing my calculations, the CO2 released from just driving came to 2271kg, only coming second to my meat-eating. I would like to bring that number down, but that wouldn't be feasible for me. I play hockey, so I have to drive around a lot, even going to rinks up to 3 hours away 2-3 times a week. Any other form of transportation wouldn't work for me, to take my bag on the bus or train would take up too much space and I would be afraid with the price of my gear to lose anything. Hockey is such a big part of my life and I'm not willing to give it up to bring down my transportation carbon footprint.

After going through the carbon footprint survey I have realized that my carbon footprint just from travel is insane. I can't control this as much since it is driving to baseball which is around 2 hours a day 4 times a week. Also, driving to games all the way across the country. There could be some ways to minimize this though like if we had an electric car we could save less on the C02 emissions from gas. The Department of Ecology says "Driving faster burns more fuel and emits more air pollutants. Accelerating gradually also burns less fuel. Getting a vehicle moving from a complete stop uses the most energy, so go easy on the accelerator. Try to anticipate the road ahead and avoid racing from red light to red light."(Melanie Foster). Doing this well taking long trips would be a very good start to making my travel safer for the environment. Another big issue that my family has is since we are always on the road we tend to have to waste lots of food because we are going out to eat all the time. Our always buying out. I also struggle with off the table with my consumption of meat since it is the main source of every meal I eat because I just enjoy the flavor so much and be I need the protein to be able to be able to perform my athletics at a high level. Some ways I could take this down by eating out less. Making meals that we can make in a hotel that is healthier to the economy like plant based foods. The United Nations says "Plant-based foods – such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, peas, nuts, and lentils – generally use less energy, land, and water, and have lower greenhouse gas intensities than animal-based foods."(United Nations) Doing some of these steps could make a massive change in my carbon emission.

It's impossible for humans now to suddenly stop using electricity and find other energy source and replace it. However, we can still try our best to stop wasting the unnecessarily used electricity.

One thing that Is "off the table" for me Is my phone I always listen to music when I'm doing my work like I am right now and I need It to find out If I am getting picked up after school or walking. I also to let my parents know where I'm at when I go hang with friends. And sometimes when I don't have my laptop for school I use my phone to turn In assignments that are due or to look something up. But I have to have to charge It a lot I also have a portable charger i keep with me because my phone die's fast but It also charges fast and It take my whole lunch brake for It to get to 40% witch is pretty good.

I agree with you as I also am not willing to let go of electronics. They help me with many in my daily life in so many ways like communication with friends and family, listening to music, learning new topics, and more.

I also agree! Using electronics can be really helpful as learning and communication tools, but I, and a lot of other people, are also very guilty of having them as our main source of entertainment.As I'm getting into sustainability and the effects of our carbon footprints, I believe this is something I need to change. So while cutting electronics out entirely is off the table, I think I should at least limit how much I use them.

one thing that is off the table for me is eating meat.
personally, i eat meat/eggs quite often, and i am willing to bring that frequency down, but i dont every see myself being vegan or vegetarian. the reason why i couldnt is that 1, i do like the taste of eggs and meat, and enjoy eating it, 2 many meat substitutes like soy are growing on land that was rainforest, and was razed to plant soy,so i feel like its almost as bad? and 3 i am quite active, and i dont know how i could eat enough protein without animal products.
even though my family still eats meat we try not to eat beef that much, and we don't drink milk at all, so i would still say we are doing our part to reduce carbon emissions.

i agree with your first reason and that is completly valid and that's your opinion. your second reason is not quite right because according to a statistic plant based diets use 75% less land then a normal diet so more meat is being grown on that land then soy ect. i am also very active and a really simple sustaitute is iron suplaments you just take a pill every other day and you will not be short on protien in the least. i think its really great that your limiting your meat and dairy though.

I am not willing to take my electronic device off the table because they are very important to me.
My phone is essential for communicating with friends and family.

I understand this feeling very well and I find it to be one of those things that would be very hard to stop using completely. While i don't think it is entirely impossible there are just to many pros like communicating with friends and family.

I agree and understand how you feel because phones are kind of essential now and it's something we use every day now. There are a lot of things that are easier to do with phones and it's easier to connect with friends and family.

I agree with this, since basically everyone now depends on the internet. Something to think about is limiting your tech uses.

I agree with what you're saying because I also use my electronics in my daily life. It is the easiest and fastest way to communicate with family.

I agree with you and I am also not willing to take my electronic device off the table. Phones, laptops, and other electronic devices are very useful for schoolwork and communicating in my everyday life. Even though they use electricity, they aren’t necessarily bad for the environment. Electronic devices can help save paper by doing schoolwork online instead of in a notebook. I do think that it’s still important to limit your device use for the sake of the environment. For example, you could play less video games and instead spend time playing sports outside.

I agree. Me personally... I don't use my phone all that much, I also don't talk to many people but what if i really had to? You can't really take something like a phone off the table because it is an important communication device. It could also be used in emergencies.

Everybody has made some really good points, needing phones for emergencies, communicating. The main reason being that phones have just become too central to our daily lives, we live in a society where we cannot live without many modern technologies, including phones.

I agree that electronic communication can be important whether you are usng it to communicate with your family or friends. Phones can also be helpful for students, for example students can search up things they don’t know and learn new things. They can also use their phones to entertain themselves and have fun.

I agree with this because i use my phone for so many essential things. such as using it for directions, or contacting family that i don't see often or for family that lives far away. i also just feel safer walking alone when i have my phone, because it gives me the option to call for help if i need too. i also just enjoy being able to take pictures with it or look something up if i don't know the answer to things. I've also discovered many different things that i like from my phone, such as different types of music.

I agree with you, my phone has become an essential part of my life. I need my phone to communicate with family and friends. For sports, I use my phone to stay updated on when my games and practices are. At school, I often need my phone for activities like Kahoot, and Microsoft Teams has become essential to staying updated on homework, and is needed to communicate with teachers when away from school. My Phone is what keeps me connected to the world, through the news, through new music, and through learning new things. In our modern day, things are constantly changing, and phones are necessary to keep pace with these changes. I would not be able to give my phone up.

Something that I know contributes to my carbon footprint is my consumption of meat. However, I find myself unable to give it up. This is due to the valuable amounts of protein, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals that the human body acquires when you eat meat. I understand that it's bad for the environment because of the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Another reason that meat consumption is bad for the environment is because land used to raise animals loses water, soil, and trees while untreated waste pollutes streams and rivers. I believe something I could do to still eat meat but reduce my carbon footprint is got only eats meat two days a week at most. I currently eat meat 4-5 days a week and while I can't give it up entirely, I think that trying to reduce the amount of meals I eat with meat in them, by eating vegetarian or plant-based alternatives to meat, could help the environment.

i think what your doing is honestly super good because i know that not every one can completly cut out meat from there diet. if every one ate meat only once or twice a week the green house gases being released would decrease by alot. though i dont completly agree with your first statment because you can acquire proteins and such from many other things that dont put the welfare of an animal down.

I think you cutting out some of the meats is great, but you can find other sources of finding protein for your diet. You wouldn’t have to fully give up meats and just have it a few times a week instead of cutting it off and finding different sources, though keeping the meat intake down keeps the green house gasses down a lot.

I'd say this is off the table. The amount of stuff we need to save time is inevitable and we can't change that. Time is one of the most valuable things in the world and we made the devices mentioned in the project to save our time to focus on other tasks. Examples are jobs, studying, other chores around the house, without the technology we have today we spend more time doing daily chores and less time to focus on important work or relaxing and getting a mental break. What I'm trying to say is, we can't stop using most of this technology or we will be wasting most of our time on chores.

i agree with you that we wont give this tech up but we don't need it to survive. like even 50 years ago they didn't have half the technology we had and they still managed to do fine and survive without it, so why cant we do the same? But realistically we are never going to give it up so we just have to switch to cleaner alternatives and hopfully not become to relient on these things.

One thing that i struggle to limit myself with is definitely my electricity use. In this society especially, we rely on most of our entertainment, communication, and school and work resources online. Especially with our current world situation, i think i speak for a lot of us when i say i find myself turning to my phone or laptop quite a bit to spend free time or just to occupy myself. Although i do hope we can move more towards using solar energy/more eco friendly energy sources in general, i think its quite hard to cut down on my energy use at the moment.

I agree. Like you mentioned, my electricity usage has also gone up with our current situation. Most of my homework/learning happens online, and I have found myself spending free time on a device instead of spending time outdoors or meeting friends. Although personally limiting the usage of electricity is off the table. I am willing to charge my devices for less time (instead of all night) and completely turn it off when it is not used. I hope to slowly limit my time spent on energy sources and reduce my carbon footprint.

I agree. Before COVID, the majority of my time was spent going out either to go out with friends or to go to sports or any extracurricular activities. Now, we need to be extra careful when doing these activities, so I do spend a lot of time on the computer or my phone; sometimes for school and sometimes to catch up with some friends online. It is hard but I am trying to get better at not being on my phone/technology if I'm not doing homework or something productive.

I agree wholeheartedly. Before the coronavirus my electricity usage was low but now it is increased significantly. Now I need to use it for schoolwork/class and for playing videogames. But I try to reduce my carbon footprint by removing my charger when I am not using it and turning off my lights when I am not in the room.

I agree. Before covid, I was just starting to think about how much electricity I used and now it's even worse. All my work is online and I find myself grabbing my device a lot more. Then whenever I finish doing my homework I usually go straight to another device because I feel like there is nothing else to do (coming from someone with a very short attention span). Obviously there are other things but I still need to find something that interests me.

I also agree. I do not have many hobbies or I struggle to stick to any, so electronics such as my phone and laptop are what I use daily to cure boredom. I also have trouble when it comes to sleeping because I need for a show to be on in order for me to fall asleep, which I use my laptop for. I am trying to find hobbies to stick to but it is so hard, especially when my laptop is something I am already used to.

I agree too. While my parents tell me to put the electronics away, I can't get myself to do it sometimes mainly when there is nothing there is to do.

My electronic use went up 100% because of our current situation. We depend on electronics for a lot of different things and also just use them for fun which I do a lot.

While I agree that sometimes it is quite hard to get away from your phone or computer, I think we should move towards not only using solar panels, or eco friendly sources, but also start to have more social life as there is more and more opportunity now that covid is settling down a bit. Social life and just spending time with other people reflects a LOT on our development as ourselves and I think is is incredibly important that we can have that again.

Personally speaking phone and computer charging is very little of our home energy usage, however it was much larger during distance learning. About 35% of energy usage relating to IT (data centers, communication networks, computer software, etc.) is from computers so this pandemic would have affected this a lot. It will be interesting to see how the rise in electric cars in the coming decades will affect global electricity usage.

I totally relate. I've been trying to regulate myself and my screen time lately, but it's kind of hard to do that when pretty much all my school work is on my laptop/phone.

Using electricity is definitely a major concern because it’s one of the hardest things to cut out. The way our society is wired, especially after the effects of the pandemic, make it impossible to not use electricity. There is of course a simple solution; clean energy sources. Unfortunately not everyone has the money or access to solar panels, a windmill or something similar. It’s incredibly frustrating to know that there is a solution but so many people can’t use it because rich people refuse to let go of the energy sources they have invested in.

One thing that I can see most people not taking off the table are gasoline powered cars. Over 95% of people in the U.S drive a gasoline powered car over an electric powered one, and this could be for several reasons. It could be because of price, as a 2023 electric car costs $5,000 more than a  2023 gas powered car ($53,469/$48,334). Or because people think it takes up more time to fuel an electric car than a gas car, because of the scarcity of charging stations around the country. Nonetheless, I don't think people would be willing to get rid of their transportation to places in order to improve their carbon footprint.

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https://www.npr.org/2021/11/20/10557189 … ic%20fleet.

Something that is off the table is my electronics which is probably what is causing my carbon footprint to be so high. But I will not give up as I use it on a daily basis with various things such as communication, texting, or calling friends and family. Also with internet access at the tip of our fingers, we can learn new things or educate ourselves. With a phone, it makes things easier and saves effort and money. Electronics do cause the rise of my carbon footprint. It also helps me in many ways.
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