I fly every year or two to see my family in Japan and it adds a lot to my carbon footprint. Even though it might have a big impact, it's extremely hard to skip out on seeing family I rarely ever get to see. My family and I do still try to be green whenever we can for our trip, we choose the eco friendliest routes that have the least stops, and sometimes my mom even brings home some recyclables because there is no recycling system in rural Japan.

By far the largest impact to my carbon footprint was transportation, specifically flying. This is because I have family across the country that I visit twice a year, as well as I travelled to visit extended family across the world for the first time this year. This is a difficult decision for me, because while I care a lot about lowering my carbon footprint, I do not know if it is worth it to sacrifice seeing my family. Though my family does purchase carbon offsets to help mitigate the impact, I still feel bad about flying so much when I know it has such a huge negative impact. I think this is a difficult issue for people who live far away from their families, and I'm not sure what is the right thing to do.

Hi tivakc, I think what you are saying makes perfect sense; yes, it uses lots of carbon to fly places but it's also necessary if you want to stay in touch with your family. I also have family out of the country and in different Provences that I would not give up seeing just because of the environmental impact. There are so many other things I (and many others do) to reduce their carbon footprint. I believe it is up to the government and engineers to make flying more sustainable. The plane was a great invention at the time but now as the environment is at risk, it is time for a change, and unfortunately, as individuals, we can not make this change. However, we can write letters and campaign for a change.

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 think that it is very good that you are cutting on your meat consumption to help the environment but I suggest instead of just cutting out all meat and animal products you could instead start trying new forms of protein and other source of nutrients like soy based forms of protein like tofu or eat other alternative meats like beyond beef that is made of plant based ingredients so you get the sources from meat but without the methane and co2 emissions so I think its a very good ting you should try it

I can totally relate to you Louisa! I'm in the exact same position where I fully understand the impacts that eating meat has on the environment and my carbon footprint but I also am not able to fully get rid of it. This is because of my culture and my family for we eat meat for at least 3 meals a day, and because I have eaten meat my whole life, abruptly getting rid of it can have many different negative effects on my body. Even though it is difficult for me to completely give up eating meat, I still try my best to reduce my meat consumption by eating more vegetarian meals and reducing my meat consumption to 1-2 meals a day or every other day and even less in the near future (like how you eat meat 4-5 days a week and are trying to reduce it to 2 days a week). I'm taking it slowly because there's times like dinner where I don't really get to choose what to eat as I eat dinner with my family, but I'm slowly convincing them to eat more vegetarian/vegan meals. Other ways that I try to reduce my meat consumption is alternatives like tofu. You can find many delicious no-meat recipes to make in replacement of your usual meat meals.

one thing that is off the table for me is eating meat. Even though i do realize meat is a crucial part of a lot of people’s diets and not an easy thing to give up, and i still think a lot of people aren’t aware of the serious affects meat has on our environment. The 1st thing i have to say about meat is how much land it takes to raise meat that is fully grown, one thing i’m not sure most of you know is that feeding someone who is vegan for a year takes only 1/6th of an acre of land while someone on a meat and dairy diet for a year uses 18 times that amount of land. i think this is a very scary statistic but also a very real one, raising meat does use a lot of land and meat eaters have to realize that. the 2nd thing i have to say about meat is how much methane cows produce, cows produce this methane through there farts, burps or poop, we contribute to this by eating cows considering how many are bred because of the demand we put on them meaning more of the methane they produce is going up into the atmosphere. i think it is a really good idea for people to consider eating less meat and dairy meals each week as it is a great way to help save our planet.

Hi i think this is a great point and is honestly very informative, i did notice you put this under the “Off the Table” category and off the table means something you wouldn’t do. I agree completely and this reality is horrifying. I’m really considering cutting off on as much meat and dairy as possible for me.

hi, thank you so much i just noticed this, please disregard this message as i am going to put it in the right category soon.

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.

I for one agree that us as a population should limit our screen times so we can lower the power that goes to not life dependent appliances like showering and cooking but I also understand that using your phone can have heaps of great benefits for you like learning new things about how to be as eco-friendly as possible so there's pros and cons but I think its a good idea to be more mindful about how our screen time can affect the environment that is around us

I mostly agree with you because i need my phone for school and communication with parents or friends. However, i think i could be on my phone less. There are times when i loose track of time watching mindless videos on TikTok or other time wasting apps. I’m not saying to never go on your phone or not go on those apps at all, i don’t think they are bad i just think as a society we don’t need to be spending as much time on them. Treat those apps as down time not an all the time thing.

I agree that phone use is mostly off the table for example i need my phone to contact my parents sometimes and i think that phones are off the table for safety issues. But at the same time i think we can minimize our screen time and thus properly balance our own safety and minimizing carbon emissions. something personally off the table for me is driving, i wish i could change my driving significantly as it is a my main carbon emission source. But since my dad lives far away from my school it is necessary for me to drive a long way to get to school and other places too.

I play a high level of hockey which requires me to drive to training 4 times a week as well I have games during the weekends, and sometimes I have to travel to rinks that are very far away and I have to go there on a team bus, for example a few weeks ago I had to play a team that is a 13 hour drive away from me not to mention tournaments as well. Basically hockey is such an important part of my life so for me driving is off the table.

I agree with KPR#31. I also have to drive a ton for my activities. I live really far from my school and have to drive about 80km for sports per week. It isn't great and I wish I could make some changes, but don't really think many other options are feasible. I've considered using public transit, but it would add an extra hour to hour and a half to my commute time, which isn't really an option when I only have about an hour and a half between school and sports. In short, I wish I could do something, but driving is really the only option

I know eating meat and animal products are horrible for the environment, but it isn't really something I think I could give up. As an athlete, I think animal products are one of the best protein wise and for building muscle, but for example: it takes 3,000 litres of water to make a single burger. This is really bad for the environment and is definitely not sustainable, but personally think plant alternatives and beyond meat just cant really replace it.

I know eating meat and animal products are horrible for the environment, but it isn't really something I think I could give up. As an athlete, I think animal products are one of the best protein wise and for building muscle, but for example: it takes 3,000 litres of water to make a single burger. This is really bad for the environment and is definitely not sustainable, but personally think plant alternatives and beyond meat just cant really replace it.

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.

I agree with this because my transportation carbon footprint number is also the biggest contributor since I do activities four times a week that I drive to  and from which are really important to me. Although it is possible to take public transportation to and from my activity. So I will sometimes but it is just annoying after a long tiring day to have to walk to the bus then bus home so I usually drive the twenty minutes. So to bring my number down I’d want to do other things like bus to school in the mornings instead of taking my ride to my activities away.

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.

I definitely agree with this, energy is difficult to cut out in this society. We live in this world of heating, cooling and lighting, things we couldn't live without. Since we are trying to limit our paper use, we end up spending more time on phones or laptops to do homework, pay bills or check the news. There is no way to cut off our energy use completely, our world is not built for that. I think energy use should be on the table for something we can fix because there are solutions. Like as "folklore" said clean energy is one. But you can also try to limit your energy use now by putting on a sweater instead of turning the heat up and turning off lights when you leave a room.

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 completely agree with frhfbhadksbc, niobe b, your first point was very understandable and makes a lot of sense.
i do think though that your second point is not entirely true because a according to you can grow 37,000 lbs of vegetables in a year on the same amount of land you can grow only 375 lbs of meat. livestock growth is also responsible for 136 million acres of land being used worldwide. i think this really shows that eating dairy and eggs is worse for the environment then the soy substitutes. so please do more research before you say such blunt things. however i am glad you are willing to eat less meat meals and make a sacrifice for our environment.

(this is what i was supposed to say by the way) i completely agree with frhfbhadksbc, niobe b, your first point was very understandable and makes a lot of sense.
i do think though that your second point is not entirely true because a according to the conspiracy documentary you can grow 37,000 lbs of vegetables in a year on the same amount of land you can grow only 375 lbs of meat. livestock growth is also responsible for 136 million acres of land being used worldwide. i think this really shows that eating dairy and eggs is worse for the environment then the soy substitutes. so please do more research before you say such blunt things. however i am glad you are willing to eat less meat meals and make a sacrifice for our environment.

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.