The design of cities is highly correlated with the carbon output of its residents. aside form obvious causes like the power grid and whereof it draws its energy, street design and urban sprawl create a mandate for personal vehicles to get on with daily life. In towns and cities in Europe which were originally built when there were no cars, it was expected that everyone would walk everywhere. As such the distribution of houses, shops, and institutions was condensed such that it was possible for an individual to reach them on foot. These cities retain, even now with automobiles, the relevance of walking. With narrow streets designed for walking it can often be cumbersome to drive, lowering the otherwise resulting emissions. In modern cities this is a stark opposite to the urban sprawl and normalization of driving everywhere.

cite:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/129 … y-country/

Hello Hilo,

You bring up an amazing point about how historical design shapes current sustainability. I also would add that cities with walkable infrastructure also benefit from reduced emissions. Not just due to less driving, but because dense urban living often means smaller living spaces, which consuming less energy overall. However, in our wonderful country the United States, many newer developments prioritize wide roads over narrow and start to enforce zoning laws that separate residential from commercial areas, making cars almost necessary. So if we start to reimagine urban design around mixed-use zoning and transit-oriented development, it could definitely help reverse some of the effects of urban sprawl.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "compact, mixed-use development helps reduce emissions and promotes healthier lifestyles."

Transportation makes up a large part of both personal and national carbon emissions and is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed, especially in the United States. Public transportation has been underfunded for years in the U.S. and it is very difficult to live in most cities without a car, but in many European cities people can rely solely on walking and public transportation. European citizens on average have much lower carbon emissions, too, though likely from a combination of things. Better train systems in the United States would also lower the number of domestic and intrastate flights taken, which right now is a number in the tens of thousands per day range and affects greenhouse gas emissions greatly. The government needs to focus on providing safer and more widely accessible transportation options and U.S. citizens need to commit to choosing them over personal vehicles when possible.
https://www.sei.org/publications/consum … itigation/
https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involv … alculator/

We don't all have the resources to do big things to save our planet, like spending money on electric cars, or buying expensive heating systems that use electricity instead of gas. And that is totally fine because there is so many more different ways we can help our planet, for example: recycling and composting, when you recycle it reduces the amount of garbage that would have been sent to the landfills. Or just putting your left over scraps in a bin thats only for compostable things, that reduces so much waste that we would mix with garbage and put and put in our landfill. Other simple things we can do are: Talking to people about this topic, turning off lights when leaving rooms, taking more transit or carpooling, bringing reusable bags to the grocery store. And all those small things can help reduce the affect us humans have on the climate.

I completely agree. Nobody's forcing you to change your home's heating or invest in new cars, but so many easy things can reduce our carbon footprints. One example is taking shorter showers. Instead of taking your time and using the water for 20 minutes, you can easily reduce down to 10 minutes by going at a normal pace and using the water for a small amount of time. Another thing is powering down your laptop. If it goes into sleep mode, it's still using battery and it's technically still on. Constantly leaving it on can also cause it to have a shorter life. These are two examples of things that don't require you to spend money or make huge changes in your daily life. I think everybody needs to consider opportunities like this to lower our carbon footprints.

I really appreciate both of your points – especially how you emphasize that even small changes in our daily habits can make a big difference. I completely agree with the idea that we don’t need to make expensive lifestyle changes to help the environment. I also liked the example about taking shorter showers – that’s something I’ve started doing too, and it really made me more aware of how much water I was using before. Another simple action I’d add is washing clothes in cold water. Experts say that about 90% of the energy used by washing machines goes toward heating the water, so switching to cold water saves energy and lowers emissions. It's a small change, but if many people did it, the impact could be huge. These everyday actions might seem minor on their own, but together they can build a more sustainable lifestyle.

I agree with the idea that we don’t all need a lot of money to help the planet. It’s true that small things like recycling, composting, or turning off lights can make a big difference if everyone does them. It’s good that the text points out that you don’t need to buy expensive things like electric cars. People often think they have to do something huge, so they end up doing nothing. That’s why it’s important to talk about small steps that everyone can take. I think messages like this should be shared more often in schools and communities.

I also think that making even small changes can have an effect. I personally have thought before that i'm one person and the things I do cant make a difference. But if everyone thinks this way then we make no changes. One persons decision to make a change can be followed by other eventually creating an impact.

It's very true how small actions can make a big difference, especially when not everyone can afford expensive solutions. I agree that composting, recycling, and turning off lights are all great ways to help. One thing I would add is the impact of water use, such as cutting down on how much water we waste. Things like by taking shorter showers or fixing leaks also helps the environment out. As you mentioned, starting conversations can lead to bigger community changes and it's important to continue doing so in the future.

I like how you are emphasizing that the little things do matter. I agree, and I think that sometimes people get discouraged because they don't have the time, money, or resources to change their lifestyle in a large way. Some things I do to help are reusing containers from things like skincare or hair products, I always turn off the lights when I leave a room, and I carpool almost everywhere I go. Although these things may seem like they are making minimal impact, if everyone did this bare minimum, our world would be much better off.

I agree with you that everything matters. Many use the fact that they don't have power or money to excuse them not attempting to help, but even one person can make a difference. We all need to be advocating and raising awareness for this because we are, unfortunately, all contributing to this. I also like all the suggestions you made like composting and using reusable items. Anyone can do this and if we all did it the world might not consider this such a big problem. The reality is whether or not we have power or money, we are all responsible for doing our part.

I completely agree, especially your point about how we don't need to make big sacrifices to save our planet; instead, small, everyday actions can make a big impact. I try to do small things every day, such as turning off my lights when I leave my room and using a reusable water bottle rather than plastic ones. I also bring reusable shopping bags for groceries when I go shopping. I believe these small actions can lead to the best results in protecting our Earth, and if each of us does just one small thing every day, we will see a better future for our world.

The human population has been growing since the 15th century in Europe and its been growing ever since.  The population continues growing but at a slower rate. The human population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2058, if the population continues to grow, ( which is predicted to grow) the humans will out compete other species, which can lead to a lot of animals going extinct. The planet will no longer be  able to sustain the growing population and we will end up reaching the carrying capacity. As our population grows other populations of other species will drop, we will end up killing them all. As humans it is our responsibility to look after the other species that we are out competing.

I think that this is very insightful because it acknowledges that climate change is not just what humans are doing, but also that there are a lot of them. Everyone blames climate change on how poorly the human race uses our resources and makes choices that contribute to an increase our greenhouse gas emissions, but as a race we are also increasing in population, which increases our greenhouse gas emissions. We still do need to work on how much greenhouse gas we emit and make sure we make good decisions for our climate.

Fast fashion is cheap, poor quality, disposable clothing that is produced quickly and sold at low prices. It is not something completely new and it has been around for a long time. You don't even know it but most of your favorite stores like Zara, H&M, Primark, Forever 21 and Shein that have lately been very popular are considered fast fashion brands. This has always been a big problem and today even more because fast fashion is responsible for 10% of global carbon dioxide emission. So, next time you want to shop in one of these stores think twice.

There are a lot of sad things happening around the world, and unfortunately, they are usually what make the news and get lots of publicity as opposed to the good changes and actions happening. This can lead to hopeless or anxious feelings about climate change that cause some people to stop trying to fight climate change. It is important to be aware of the good and innovative things happening in the world as well as the bad.

I agree! I think that if people were more informed about the good changes that others are making to help fight climate change, then they would be more motivated to help make changes to improve as well! I think that instead of promoting the tragic news to make people feel hopeless and doomed (although it's still good for awareness), we should promote more news about positivity to motivate others into willingly helping improve the state of the world. Positive news could be more inspiring and help lead someone into wanting to do what others are doing to make the world a better place for everyone to live in and to inform them of the small changes they can do to make a big difference. Sad/tragic news on the other hand could make someone feel like it's too late to make a change or the problems are too big to be able to do something about it (which is completely untrue)

I agree with this, I think it is very important to focus on what we can do and change instead of what we are doing wrong all the time. Though it is important for people to know the severity of whats happening right now I think we could educate people on whats happening in a less scary way. Educating people and especially kids in a way that makes them feel like they can do their part is vital so people actually start making change instead of being scared of how much they need to change their lives in order to save the whole world. I think a great way to educate everyone is start with small things like how to recycle properly and to advertise clean ups that you could sign up with your friends or family.

Doing things as simple as composting, turning off lights when you're not home, recycling, taking quicker showers, and carpooling or riding a bike or walking can help the environment. these are all easy and not very time-consuming lifestyle choices that you can make that can help save our earth. Obviously, there are larger problems than plastic straws in the world but every little thing can help.

Dear BigCmanCrago, i agree that we must make these small changes in our own lifestyles, and even though it may not seem like it's making a big deference, if everyone does it, it will.  I know this to be true because I used to use the opposite argument, that if i buy and throw away just one or two recyclable bottles, its not that big a deal. If I take 30 minute showers just this week, it wont really matter. Yet its when everyone in the world thinks like this that we have a problem. We must shift our our mindsets together to start thinking about the little things, and thinking about our future.

I think osker makes a very good point. It can be easy to forget about the other eight billion people we share a planet with, often using the excuse “what difference can one person make?”. And sure, one person who chooses not to recycle couldn’t have less of an impact, but when hundreds, thousands, millions of people decide that its no longer their responsibility, well you can imagine the problems that would come with that. It is imperative that we do not keep a solitary mindset, as climate change is not a battle we are fighting alone.

I agree that these small actions make the environment around us a better place, but what will these actions do for our planet in the long run if not promoted? What is the point of putting ourselves through more work to act sustainably if it only benefits our egos? I understand that taking actions like carpooling and taking short showers takes away from our carbon emission, but these actions will not have a large impact on our planet if there are very few making an effort. This is why I believe that we, as students, must find ways to promote our healthy lifestyles as much as possible. Although much debated, one citizen acting sustainably and keeping it to themselves will not have an impact on climate change or global warming. If change is desired, we should be actively looking for ways to promote our healthy and sustainable ideas to many others.

I agree that every little think thing helps and just by taking a 10 min shower instead of 20 can be helpful, but also just by decreasing your meat eating by one meal can help so much more than you think. For example a McDonalds Big Mac cause around 2.35kg of CO2 where an impossible burger (which is a type of veggie burger) produces 0.75kg of CO2. So yes every little thing helps, but it’s is also good to think about the bigger things like becoming vegan and things like that.

In class, we talked a lot about our environmental footprints, which I didn't even know about before. I also learned that the United States is in a concerning ecological deficit which may be scary on the surface, but there are many people working to make a change.

The major thing that I've learned throughout all of my research is how many people genuinely want to make a positive change and help our Planet. This entire sustainability idea means a lot to me, and it makes me hopeful knowing that so many want to and are trying to help

#climatechange is gonna save the planet everyone!

Except its not. It may, on the rare occasion, educate others and encourage them to take action, but the post itself is not enough. We like and follow, but do we take the time to learn about the topic and what needs to be done in to help. Social media is helping us convince ourselves that we are “doing our part”, and I think that many of us struggle to find reassurance, scared that we too are a part of the problem. But we soon become so enveloped in this fear are that we neglect our duties of a citizen of planet earth. It is important that as we move forward with climate change that we remember that a repost is not a solution, it is simply a bandaid stuck on top of a problem that has become to real.

You're 100% correct. We often use social media as a mask and a tool to at like people we're not. In this particular case instead of acting like someone, were acting like were doing something that were not.

I've been thinking about this for some time now. I mean, boosting a video and then just continuing doing what you've been doing won't magically make climate change disappear. It may help raise awareness, but not everyone is willing to try and help.

Oil & fossil fuels are some of the biggest contributors to pollution and our global ecological footprint, so why don’t we stop using them? There is no true answer because there are too many unknown variables. Although I am confident in the belief that through innovation we can find an alternative what if we don’t, can we really continue to rely on oil & fossil fuels until we pollute the earth beyond repair? What would we be able to do without our main source of energy? Oil fuels every industry within our lives, transportation (which already affects every other industry), medicine, the production of electricity, etc. Without oil, we would essentially be back to the days when electricity wasn’t a thing. So my question is, what is the answer, what if we never find another way to harvest enough energy from resources besides fossil fuels?
    Personally, I think that right now we should focus on innovation so that we can solve these problems, however, if we were to assume that we can’t or we are incapable of doing so I think that we should begin to slow down oil production and begin to rely on more environmentally friendly resources until we can become stable off of just these resources.

I think that us cutting off oil wouldn't be possible, because the use of cars every day, machines in factories, heating in buildings are a few things we can't live without. People with gas cars might not be able to afford electric cars, people using machines in factories are needed for jobs, and heating in buildings / houses are needed so people don't freeze. Therefor we need oil in our every days life to life and survive.

I agree with everything you've stated thus far; I would like to add that if we can lessen our oil use while focusing on innovation, we will have more time to find a solution. By driving less and cutting back on unused heating, we can help preserve our environment for longer.

This statement from jaydo is agreeable; If we use cars every day that our oil powered it might not slow down. However there could be possible solutions. car company's could slowly change all there cars to electric then all the old gas powered cars need to be exchanged so they will by the new electric car.

Probably not cause we need oil much more than most people think.

I totally agree what with what you all are saying, like it's highly unlikely that we can completely cut off oil, but through innovation we can use other materials alongside it to cut it's consumption.

I agree with you. I think it would be extremely difficult to stop using oil all together. The sad fact is that some people just don't care. I think the best case scenario is that instead of cutting off oil use entirely we start to ween off it. Everyone can start doing their part by using less oil and fossil fuels, and slowly but surely we one day can stop altogether.

I agree with all of you that it would be hard to cut off oil because you use it to charge cars or the factory's. I think that we could use less oil by using eletric cars or have more eco friendly factory's.

I agree with sopwin, it would be easier to start to gradually lessen the use of oil then to cut it off entirely, but I also agree that with innovation, we could stop using oil gradually. It is really hard to make people care, and I really want to help with oil reduction in the world! I know this isn't my post, but I'm really curious: Do any of you all have ideas on how we could make people more notified about climate change?

Climate change disproportionately effects marginalized communities particularly within the black community  “ Black or African Americans are 40% more likely than non-Black Americans and non-African Americans to currently live in areas with the highest projected increases in mortality rates due to climate-driven changes in extreme temperatures.” -EPA When we are talking about the effects of Climate change we need to talk about who it is effecting the most, and sadly it will often not be the people that have cause the most environmental harm. In order to make real social change we need to make environmental change as well, to neglect climate change as an issue will effect minorities disproportionately so if you are about social change you must work on  environmental change as well.

I think that this is very valuable information. I didn't know this before but I do now, and very much agree with you. We should be taught about this and i'm glad you're bringing this to the attention me and many others.

Nuclear energy has an almost net zero impact on the environment in a way most other alternatives to natural gas and oil do not. Reactors generate power through fission, which is the name for the process of splitting uranium atoms and using the resulting heat to create steam. The steam spins a turbine that generates electricity. According to the US Nuclear Energy Institute, through nuclear power the United States avoided 471 million metric tons of harmful emissions. Nuclear energy also is a very land-efficient way of producing power; a 1,000 megawatt facility requires less than one square mile of land to operate, opposed to wind farms which reportedly require 360 times more space. This almost insignificant footprint is just another reason why more reactors are being built in higher populated areas, this is just a short list of reasons why I believe further investment in nuclear power can only lead to the benefit and meet humanity’s growing needs for further power sources.

https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/fiss … difference
https://www.nei.org/resources/statistic … r-industry
https://www.nei.org/news/2015/land-need … ear-plants

I agree that it is a good, clean energy source. I think that some of the reasons for it not being as widespread are that it can be expensive and dangerous. Reactors can have meltdowns and cause widespread damage. I think that it can be a viable option to have, but should not be our main or only source of energy.
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/nuclear-power-101

Major company’s such as Zara, Starbucks, Coca Cola etc. claim to be more environmentally friendly than they in fact are. In order to avoid facing repercussions for their negligence. This creates a false narrative that they are not causing as much damage to the environment as originally thought. Even in my community we see green washing within what our schools invest in for scholarship money. So a small group of students including myself have started a discussion about divestment, and making sure the company’s we invest in are environmentally friendly. In order to enact true change we need to know what we are dealing with first, and Green washing is preventing that.

Greenwashing is a huge issue, especially for big companies who want to flaunt being environmentally friendly so people will be more willing to buy from them. The Federal Trade Commision website has a great guide for criteria for consumers who are looking to buy from a genuinely green company. It also makes it easy for companies to understand what practices they need to change in order to be more friendly to the planet. If anyone is interested in this info, it can be found at: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/ … een-guides

I totally agree with this. I think its so sad how companies such as the ones you mentioned above are lying to people. It also sucks that people think they are doing good by supporting those brands that are claiming to be green but instead of helping make the CO2 levels better, its just getting worse. I am glad that there has been something created that lets people know what companies really are green. Even though websites like this exist, so many people still do not realize that they are being lied to and may go on forever buying from these brands. I hope that your websites as well as others can continue to have awareness being spread about them so that as many people as possible can help limit their CO2 levels.

Over the past semester, I have learned a lot about what contributes to global warming. I learned what greenhouse gases actually are and what the greenhouse effect is. Most importantly I learned how this all connects back to me. During this assignment, I saw how each individual decision I make even if it is only choosing between a plastic or glass bottle makes an impact on our environment.

The average human will produce less carbon during their entire lifetime than a large company produces every day. The capitalistic society we live in is the cause of our pollution, the system needs to change if we want to keep our planet.

It may not be the system to change but how we run it. Government laws can be used to force companies to abide by strict protocols for emictions, waste, and the materials that products are made up of.

ddoust25, I don't think you realize how much our society relies on the large companies of the world, the computer you used to make that statement is in your hand because of large companies. if all large companies where abolished it would send the world into a spiral, there would be no easy fashion of transferring knowledge without internet, planes, cars or motorized boats all being produced by large companies. I agree that large companies are a large part of pollution but there are other waysto reduce help their environmental footprint then what you are suggesting. if you want the world to go back to the dark ages then by all means end capitalism.

Not all of the Carbon in the atmosphere is human caused. Animals respirate and die, which is the natural cycle of life, volcanoes erupt, and carbon leaks in through cracks in the earth, however, before the industrial revolution, there was a balance of plants taking in carbon and animals respirating carbon/dying. We as humans, for the last ~150 years, have totally disrupted the carbon cycle, rendering it unbalanced and causing the temperatures to heat up. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of emissions, followed by vehicular and household emissions.

Because of the Carbon in the atmosphere, we have dodged an Ice Age which should have happened, and because of that the earth has avoided the "ice age extinction", but we have caused our own extinction for the plentitude of species of the world.

Developing countries need to build up, and thus they must find the cheapest way of generating energy and means of construction. Concrete accounts for ~8% of the global CO2 emissions, which countries use for construction.

At the end of the day, unless some big political change or a new ground-breaking discovery happens overnight, then it won't be over just yet.

It is already too late to get back what we have lost, but we can still save the future.

Please refer and watch this video by Kurzgesagt to learn more.

Thank you for taking your time to read this and feel free to criticize me in the comments.

Thank you very much for this information, I never knew that the built-up carbon prevented an Ice Age. CO2 emissions have helped us of course, but the amount that has built up means that all the radiation coming from the troposphere is causing some pretty horrible environmental changes. Global warming has gone too far, and while we do need greenhouse gasses to survive in a hospitable environment, it has just become too much.

Thank you so much for this information! I was under the impression that humans nearly 100% of the time were the leading cause for climate change, air pollution, global warming, etc., but now I see that animals and other living organisms are also fairly prominent causes to the global CO2 emissions.

I knew that humans had disrupted the cycle of climate change, but I had no idea that we had dodged an ice age because of it. Do you have the source for the information of the ice age? I would also like to thank you for your incredibly informative and well put together post if you do end up reading this comment after 2 years since your posted. I also would like to know more about how concrete contributes so much and if switching to roman concrete would make a difference, you have inspired me to search for more information. Thank you for the amazing and thought provoking post; also I am also a big fan of Kurzgesagt, so its cool to interact with someone else who knows who they are.

Nature must be protected so that we can breathe fresh air, drink and swim in clean water, enjoy the beauty of filelds, meadows and forests. We must protect it not only for ourselves, but also for future generations, foe animals, birds, and fish living on our planet. Nature must not perish.

I agree that people should protect nature so that other living creatures can survive. Moreover, I think that a lot of people don’t realize just how much nature affects us, too. Nature is the beginning of all things we need to survive. Like you said, it allows us to breathe, but it also gives us the food we eat, the water we drink, and it provides us with numerous mental health benefits.

I agree that protecting nature is important because they play a big role in supporting our ecosystem. It provides the basic things we use to survive, like the air we breath, the food we eat, and the water we drink.

this is so well said! if it weren't for nature, life here on earth wouldn't exist to begin with. all these gifts nature has provided for us make the planet worth living, and not only us humans, but almost every living organism here relies entirely on nature. .

Yes! Very well said! Nature is very important, it brings life to this planet and it helps us live and thrive. Without nature, we wouldn't be here living and breathing. There's so much to learn on this planet, we must do everything we can to preserve it for future generations.

I agree with you! More often than not people overlook the effects that their actions have on the world around them. When it comes to innovation, we instead look at the ways that things could benefit and make things easier for us as opposed to how making our lives easier can make other lives harder. I also agree with you on the fact that we also need to protect nature for ourselves, in negatively impacting nature, we can negatively affect ourselves just the same.

I agree! We must protect nature! We depend on nature. Nature provides us with food and everything needed to live healthy lives. We protect wildlife and biodiversity by protecting nature also. I believe that we must also preserve the beauty of nature.

Nature is very important because it provides us with food, water and everything else needed to live healthy lives. Even the air we breathe is part of nature. We need to protect nature in order to protect wildlife and biodiversity. We need to reduce, reuse, and recycle. We can also take action by going to volunteer in cleanups such as beach cleanups. We can also plant trees to increase biodiversity. Furthermore, I believe that we need to educate more people to take similar actions to protect nature.

I agree with you completely, nature is important and we have to protect it otherwise we will all die,

I agree, it is very important to protect nature because it is the base for all living things, and without a healthy environment, nothing can be alive.

I believe it is quite obvious that nature is important, and all of you commenting 'I agree, nature is very important', followed by the reasoning for nature being important, is quite irritating. All you're doing is saying 'I care too!'. It doesn't do a damned thing. Another thing you are doing is wasting your time writing why you care, instead of ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING TO SAVE NATURE!!!

camden so real for that one, it's a total echo chamber.  Thread should be titled "how to protect nature" so that we'd get some ideas with actual substance.  The problem is I feel like our whole system is promoting this fake treehugging culture and saying "stop climate change" because that's sexy and trendy, meanwhile people putting actual conservation efforts that deserve funding forward are getting overshadowed by bigger voices.  I also think the best way to separate those two demographics is to stop pushing and forcing people to care, like how the people from my school are being forced to type and respond in this forum.  Most, if not all of us are going to turn around tomorrow and forget about everything we said because we don't actually care about the environment, we care about following instructions.  It's admirable that these people want our generation to care about the issue because of how dire it is but at the same time if the climate change discussion gets too overcrowded it all just turns into a wall of noise and we don't accomplish anything, we waste time and resources and we all die anyway because we were too busy talking instead of taking action.  I don't know if you're aware that earth is gonna be pretty much all out of top soil in 60 years or less.  It's already the beginning of the end.

Camden2005, I think you need to calm down because if you really, genuinely think that a bunch of high schoolers are going go out and do something to save nature, when most of us don't have cars, money, or any of the other resources to do this, you have to be actually crazy. People don't have time to do anything because of homework, sports, and clubs that take up their whole days, don't get mad at them for that.

Takoyama, This activity was supposed to be about sharing your perspective to other people. Yes all of us care about our grades, but that doesn't mean at least some of us care about the environment too.

Greenwashing is a false claim that deceives consumers into believing that a company's products are environmentally friendly. I have started to recognize this more in society. Numerous fast fashion companies such as H&M, Zara, Forever 21, and others give people the illusion that they are shopping sustainably. However, this is simply a marketing tactic created so that people would not feel guilty purchasing items from these companies. They say that they are ethical when it comes to the production of low-cost fashion items. However,  that is far from the truth. Fast fashion brands seem to only care about profit. They exploit cheap laborers in developing countries, use large amounts of water and oil and dump extra toxic waste in local rivers ad streams, disturbing thousands of people's water sources. The concept of greenwashing also occurs quite a lot in the food industry. Many processed, packaged foods are labeled "healthy and ethically produced."  These are also exemplification unsustainable claims.

As an employee of a Grocery Store, I can confirm greenwashing in the food industry. Many labels such as Fair trade and certified naturally grown often mislead consumers. Fair trade is supposed to show a product that was produced without child labor but often you see product from India and China with those labels (Which are notorious for using child labor). As well, Naturally Grown only requires 75% of a grocery product to be organic which can also be misleading.

I was looking for something on greenwashing cause I think it's a really overlooked issue that should be taken more seriously, unfortunately it doesn't look like this post from almost 3 years ago got very much attention.  Somehow we need to hold these corporations accountable for blatantly lying about something with such serious repercussions.

Over time the human population has been increasing drastically.  100 years ago the population was only at 2 Billion or less. Now in 2023 the current population of the earth is at 8 billion people! That is 4x more people than 100 years ago. This is how the population has changed over the century. We will never know when we will hit our carrying capacity but for now our world will still grow exponentially. Eventually we will have to see a decline in our population.

I feel that the habitable space on earth is slowly shrinking by the day and we should try to manage or expand it. I suggest that our trash should be sent towards the sun via newton's law of inertia so that the landfills can be emptied and repurposed into habitable space.

Over the past few hundred years, our population has increased almost tenfold. in 1800, there was around 1 billion people on earth. now, just over 200 years later, we have 8 billion. this is the largest curve of growth among any large species, and it has not ended yet. we are expected to reach 10 billion by 2058, which is only 35 years away, and even then we arent expected to stop. if we keep going the way we are, the planet will not be able to sustain all of us, and our numbers will come at the cost of other species, as we take more and more space, we will end up weeding them out of their homes and, ultimately, killing them all off. how can we, as a species, keep going the way we are and not end up killing off all other species?

It is commonly known that electric cars are better for the environment than gasoline powered cars. What some people may not know is that electric cars actually emit more carbon dioxide in production than gas powered cars do. However, this has a benefit, as electric powered cars tend to release about 60-68% less greenhouse gas emissions than gas powered cars.

In my biology class an experiment of sorts was conducted where everybody who took the class calculated their carbon footprint and recorded them on a shared document for everyone to see. I myself found that I had a relatively high carbon footprint compared to my classmates, the biggest contributor being transportation. After discussing with some of my classmates with similar results we debated how we affected our environment and how it affected us. I myself have a large family, some of which live across the country. My family and I want to see our family, however, what cost does this have? Some of my other classmates with large transportation emissions discussed how they have families that live in a whole different continent and visit them near annually, facing the same dilemma. No matter what mode of transportation there is, whether it be flight, driving, or some other way, it produces many greenhouse gases. Do we sacrifice ourselves for our impact? How can we reduce our carbon footprint?

How could you go about changing your carbon footprint.

Some quick ways to change your carbon footprint would be to stop buying water in plastic, walk or ride a bike for some short distances, to turn off lights when not in use, use cold water cycle for washing clothes, keep stuff out of a landfill by selling stuff to thrift stores, and to carpool or use public transport

Many businesses get away with decisions that are ultimately bad for the environment because they still get money from it. This is because there are consumers that are still buying their products. How can consumers make decisions about what they buy in order to minimize their effect on the environment?

To reduce the impact on the environment, consumers could buy food with recyclable packaging. For example, they can buy food with cardboard and glass packaging, instead of plastic ones. Thus, they can reduce plastic consumption and learn how to make efficient and environmentally friendly purchases.

I agree, with the amount of plastic packaging out there it all adds up and eventually will be too much. We have control over what we are buying and we can take even more control by buying things that are packaged with glass and or cardboard.

As the solutions are listed, the implementation of the solutions need to be listed as well. How would we get people to look for products with recyclable packaging? How would we get people to actually recycle the recyclable products? Solving the problem is not simply coming up with solutions, rather finding ways to implement said solutions.

A study has been shown noting that what you eat heavily correlates to your emissions. Researchers at the University of Sheffield tested the Co2 Emissions of 60,000 Japanese households and came to the conclusion that "the more sweets, alcohol, and food from restaurants, the higher the household carbon footprint." Additionally, livestock produces 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions. Taking all this data into account is quite important since the direct effects of human carbon emissions have caused heavy climate change. If humans were to indulge in less red meat, candy, and alcohol, this could help take a step towards reducing the carbon footprint. The next time you eat, take this into account! Change is necessary to reduce this warming world.

https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2020 … ouseholds/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/cow-b … hange-that

I find your statement quite interesting. Pertaining to humans eating an abundance of red meat, I recently watched a documentary on how red meat used to be considered a delicacy during the time of hunter gatherers, and how in today's society the amount of red meat being consumed is correlates with the deteriorating human condition and climate change.

The study's findings underscore the undeniable link between our dietary choices and carbon emissions, emphasizing the significance of personal decisions in the fight against climate change. It's a stark reminder that what we eat isn't just about personal health but has far-reaching environmental implications. The statistics regarding the livestock industry's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions serve as a wake-up call. To make a real impact on reducing our carbon footprint and addressing the challenges posed by climate change, we should all seriously consider making more sustainable food choices and support broader systemic changes. It's a shared responsibility, and this study highlights the urgency of taking action to combat the warming world we face.

Recycling is the action of converting wastes such as plastics, glass bottles, and jars, into reusable material. The act of recycling is portrayed as a practice that works and helps out the environment, but in actuality, the method of recycling is only partly successful. With this post I seek to prove that recycling isn't an efficient method of helping our polluted environment, and we must find a better way of dealing with our plastic problem.   

Contention One: Waste Sorting
According to a U.C. Santa Barbera study, only 34% of recyclable material is correctly sorted in the United States. Through that same study it was found that over 74% of material, regardless of categorization, was dumped into landfill. These statistics show that despite the ability to recycle, there aren't enough people who are correctly sorting their waste correctly to allow the processes of recycling to work. Of that 34% of correctly sorted recyclable material, 25% has been contaminated according to a Columbia Study. With all of these obstructions in place, only a small amount of material that is placed in the recycling bin is truly put through the process of recycling.

Contention Two : The Recycling Process
Energy plants in the United States are a contributor to pollution and air contamination. According to a Human Rights Watch study on how recycling plants impact the environment, they found that "Untreated wastewater from recycling facilities are likely contaminated with toxic pollutants that can harm people and biodiversity. Plastic melting facilities emit volatile organic compounds . . . Toxic chemicals, including carcinogens and VOCs, pollute air both inside facilities and in areas near recycling facilities" (Human Rights Watch 2022, See Sources for Link). Further research shows that these practices happen not only in the United States, but in other countries, showing that the damage that recycling plants cause is worldwide.

Contention Three : Remnants of Recycling
Despite recycling plants breaking down plastics and metals, only a minor part of recyclable wastes are truly repurposed. For example, an NPR funded research study, only 5% of recyclable plastics are reused. The rest of these plastics are thrown into landfill by recycling companies such Waste Management (WM). That 5% of recycled plastic is turned into plastic bags that further taint our environment, and can no longer be recycled.

Sources:
U.C. Santa Barbera Study https://www.dfss.ucsb.edu/sites/default … ctices.pdf

Colombia Study
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/ … g-america/

Human Rights Watch on Climate Change
https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/09/21/i … odiversity.

NPR Study on Results of Recycling
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/11311310 … 20landfill.

Very Interesting, and I mostly agree with what you wrote. You briefly mentioned that the process for recycling plastics is not infinite, and I would like to further explain. A majority of plastics that are technically classified as ‘recyclable’ aren’t fully recyclable. For example, polystyrene (plastic #6), better known as foam, isn’t recyclable at many major recycling facilities (https://sanjoserecycles.org/guide/foam- … lystyrene/), and even when it can, the recycling process is very inefficient. It can also very easily blow into the environment where it leeches harmful chemicals that damages wildlife and the environment. Additionally, PET plastic (plastic #1) has many unique categories that can’t be recycled together, and requires more plastic to be added each time it is recycled, meaning that more plastic is being produced, completely defeating the supposed purpose of recycling. Only 9% of waste enters the recycling process, and even less ends up actually being recycled. In my opinion, the only solution is to stop the companies that produce this plastic, either via a boycott, governmental regulations, or some other means.

Sources: A brief read-through of the sources listed in the previous post and; https://www.rainbowrecycling.org/what-p … 20recycled.  https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi … al/661141/  https://sanjoserecycles.org/guide/1-plastic-pet/ https://sanjoserecycles.org/guide/foam- … lystyrene/

Hello -

I recently completed the Carbon Footprint Calculator and found that my yearly output is extremely high (around 28000kg). For context - I flew a total of 16 plane trips last calendar year, this is because my father has been traveling around the world for long periods of time and thus I have been visiting him. I understand that the obvious solution would be to reduce the amount of trips I take, yet I already stretch them quite far apart (5-7 Months, yet I have included layovers in my calculation along with a few trips from 2021.). Does anyone have an idea that would help reduce my carbon footprint while still haven’t the opportunity to visit my Dad?

Thanks .

Hello fellow student. I am extremely concerned by your carbon footprint. Since planes are so bad maybe try riding a horse instead of flying.

?

I think traveling in planes in definitely a big contributor to climate change and our carbon emissions. I unfortunately, will be traveling a couple times this year and i wish there were other ways to travel the world without creating more carbon. I think since multiple people travel together, it makes the amount of carbon were putting into the environment more justified.

Hello fellow student, While your carbon footprint is higher than most it is important to put everything into perspective. You should certainly make an effort to reduce travel and to take more direct routes if possible, but in then end in our highly industrialized world there is little you can do when it becomes necessary for you to travel internationally. And remember where most of the emissions come from, 100 of the largest corporations create over 70% of a the carbon emissions in the world, so if there is truly nothing you can do to avoid the travel in the first place there is no need to feel too guilty.

Recently I have chosen to buy peanut butter that is packaged in glass jars instead of plastic ones. With the plastic jar I usually recycled it. With the glass jar I can reuse it to drink out of.

Hello, I completely agree with you, we must now promote the use of glass or wood so that we can leave future generations a clean and safe planet. Indeed, plastics pollute the fauna and flora which has a direct impact on our lives but also on those of our animals. Thus, there are several alternatives including the use of glass as you said or other biodegradable materials which will allow us to do recycling. In my case, I prefer to take a gourd to go to school instead of every day buy a new bottle of water.

Hello, I also agree and I use metal straws when drinking coffee in the morning, and I also try my best to not use a plastic water bottle every day and reuse them for 2 days.

Hello! I love this idea! As someone that eats a lot of peanut butter and is passionate about the environment, this is a great idea. I also believe it is important to bring your own portable mug or bottle to coffee shops. Opposed to continually getting a plastic cup that will end up in a landfill.

This is a great idea! Coming from a family that is highly against using plastic containers (even if we do we try to reuse those too) i think the peanut butter from glass jars would be a great idea. It also help with purchasing like cups or containers because you could turn the jars into those things easily. Just takes a quick wash. I also feel like we could change many other things from plastic to glass, or even metal if you’re worried about glass breaking too often.

This is such a cool thread! Personally, at my house, we use those Mason jars to drink out of. Those things survive a long time and you can reuse them for virtually forever. But we also use them as storage containers. For example, instead of buying granola from the store, we bake it and then store it in one of the giant Mason jars.

Great idea I'm glad there are so many people in the world who care about the environment

Same, I use my glass jars as small birdhouses that the birds can make a nest in,

Swapping plastic containers with glass ones is a really good step into becoming more eco-friendly and it doesn't even require that much effort, so almost everyone should be able to do that. Moreover, glass containers are more hygienic, and easier to reuse or recycle into something better, something that you will get more use out of.

I agree that we should limit the amount of plastic items we buy, and try to buy glass ones instead, as they are much better for the environment! We can also stop buying plastic water bottles and use our glass or metal water bottles instead And, we can replace plastic straws with paper or metal straws.

My family often keeps the jars we get for jam, and use it for storing other things. The stuff that we usually end up putting in there is generally spices of some kind. Glass jars also make good containers for water when you paint, so that’s often a use. I saw someone here saying that they made birdhouses out of jars, which is a really cool idea! It sounds interesting to try.

I agree that glass containers are better for the environment than plastic ones, for many reasons. It is much easier to recycle them, they tend to be more durable and therefore better sorted to reuse, and they do not break down into micro plastics that harm sea animals. My family always tries to buy packaged food in glass whenever we can, but sometimes it just isn’t possible. Either there is no option in glass, or the sustainable option is much more expensive. It’s the system that needs changing in this case, for example the rules in place surrounding food packaging. Otherwise, the situation will not significantly improve.

There's an entire subforum on here about ocean acidification and the ramifactions that has, but equally important and significantly less talked about is the decline of insect populations. Maybe it's because we just don't like bugs as much as we like sea turtles, but the ecological impact is going to be severe.

Personally, the contrast between my childhood memories and what I see now is astonishing. A few years after I moved to the house I live in now, around 2007-2008, I can remember huge amounts of black swallowtail and cloudless sulphur butterflies, and keeping some of the caterpillars in a jar inside to watch them pupate and hatch. But this year I can only remember seeing maybe three or four swallowtails, and only a couple of the cloudless sulphurs. We would get swarms of lovebugs in October, literally thousands in the air and of every available surface, but I only saw a few handfuls last year. I have only seen one carpenter bee so far this spring. We don't have to clean the windsheilds or grills of our car anymore. There are even fewer roaches and palmetto bugs at night.

I know this is a global issue, but the personal impact is just so stark.

Here's an article without a paywall if anyone isn't acquainted with this already: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/201 … -look.html

I'm in a subtropical region of the US, what is it like elsewhere?

You make a really good point about the impact on the insects. They’re a really important part of ecosystems, so the effect that their decline will have spans even larger. I personally am not as interested in insects as I am in other organisms, but they play a huge role in food chains and things like pollination. The decrease in diversity you’ve mentioned also sounds really concerning too, with much less of the insects that you were used to seeing before.

When I was calculating my carbon footprint thru the advanced carbon footprint calculator, there was a question about how much data do you use in a month on your phone and that intrigued me because I never thought of data affecting my carbon footprint? Like does the amount of energy it takes to “make” a gb of data affects your carbon footprint? A source I found “Honey Mobile” said this about mobile data, “using 1GB of data uses 0.3kg of CO2”

That's really interesting, this is the first time I myself though about how our daily data usage could unknowingly contribute to our carbon footprint. I think this widens the conversation about how we could be even more sustainable in our day to day lives.

Since the beginning of the conflict currently afflicting Ukraine began I have been concerned about the ecological ramifications of another meltdown occurring at one of Ukraine's few remaining nuclear power plants. It should be apparent that this is not a good thing environmentally speaking.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.market … 1646352432

A delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency led by Rafael Grossi, director general of the agency, left today for the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. I hope it will change the situation for the better

That could pose a significant threat, however, it is a very unlikely scenario given today's circumstances, contact a team of experts among your local professionals to make sure you get fast help

Nuclear power plant meltdown is damaging, but there are many preparations in place in the scenario it does melt down. If one did go down, it would likely be due to an attack by Russia, which is unlikely since it would put them in international trouble.

We all know that Biodiversity contributes a lot to the formation of our natural system, but how is this related to the emission of Carbon Dioxide and other Greenhouse gases? I remember that I used to read a report about chain effects in ecosystems. An Invasive species of algae occupied a major water body and emerged as a prevailing species here. It consumes most of the oxygen contained within the water. This led to the suffocation of many fish and waterborne animals. The water also became acid because too much CO2 emitted by the algae dissolved into it and reduced the capacity for it to absorb greenhouse gasses, which indirectly led to global warming. Are there other examples of this kind of event?

When you think of the people mainly responsible for climate change, who do you think of? I think of the big companies that extract fossil fuels from the ground, or cut down forests to make more space for cattle and other agriculture; But we can’t put all the blame on them. It is also on us, whether we want to accept it or not. Without us, these companies would have no power because no one would be buying their products and therefore they wouldn’t be making any money. All these companies care about is how much money they make, so if we stop supporting them they will stop. We have hit a point where small things like recycling aren't going to be enough to make a big enough change to stop the Impacts of climate change. We need to change the big things, we are in more control of them than we realize. As much as I wish they would, we all know that these companies aren’t going to take responsibility for their actions, which is why we need to take responsibility for ours. Before we fight against these companies and blame them for what they are doing wrong, we need to think about how our actions tie in. I’m not trying to defend them, because what they’re doing is wrong and they should admit that instead of denying it; but how can you protest against deforestation, and fossil fuel extraction, but still use gas to fuel your car, electricity in your home or continue to eat meat at every meal? I know that we won't be able to change right away, it will take time and it won't be easy, but we need to start looking for more sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives to our everyday lifestyle. When we have done that then we will hold all the power against these companies.

K-Gauthier, I totally share your frustration and agree that we need to simultaneously think about how our own actions contribute to climate change, how companies have an especially large impact here (much laerger than  any individual) and that we need to put all kinds of pressure on these companies to change their ways.  Yes, this starts with making sure that we vote with our wallets, as it were, by not buying things from companies we support.  And then expanding these actions to others (e.g., sharing our views like you are doing here on this website!), and actions that might influence policies of local governments on up to national and international decision making.  We are the only ones who can make a difference here, so we can't give up.  Best, Jason

This is a very in-depth and educated analysis! I definitely agree that the power of the consumer is much greater than that of the business as long as we can work together. A company’s main goal is to make money, so as long as they’re doing that, they won’t stop. The only way to stop these types of companies is to show that doing this won’t make them money. The only way to do that is to not give them our business.

That's a great analysis of the current situation, and I think that we are already on the path towards this future. We have several renewable resources, such as wind, solar, and hydro, and we aren't there yet, but we are getting there with solar increasing it's efficiency, and new technology to put wind in the ocean and coastal regions so that there is constant wind blowing, I think that we can all look forward to a better future. However, there should be something that we as the consumer, and that the government can do. The government should hand out subsides, and have tax cuts for the companies that have renewable energy sources. Along with that I think that there should be more choice for consumers, so that instead of how it is today, where each neighborhood has just one supplier of gas and electricity, we should have more than one company, so that the consumer can select the one that is using renewables, as renewable energy is often cheaper than traditional coal powerplants as well. I know that this cannot all happen at once, and that it is easier said than done, but it is possible, and with government and consumer backing it could very well happen in newer communities.

I agree, humans actions have a big affection to climate change and how companies have a large impact as well. Humans can stop certain habits and that can help putting an end to the non-eco-friendly companies. Reducing energy consumption, choosing sustainable supplies, reducing waste, are all sorts of actions that can help fight climate change. If everyone does these things, the world could make a difference and that is what we want.

One of the major contributors to global warming is excess methane from livestock. Besides eating less meat, what are some other ways we can reduce methane emissions from livestock?

Greenhouse gases and carbon emissions can come from both individual houses and company-owned factories. While companies generally have a greater impact, the individual can generally control their own carbon footprint better than they can that of large corporations. What is the level of responsibility of each? Should there be a balance between individual and corporate responsibility? Should an individual focus more on their own carbon footprint or work to bring down that of bigger contributors?

When I was calculating my carbon footprint thru the advanced carbon footprint calculator there was a question on how much often do you eat organic foods and this intrigued me because how does organic foods affect carbon footprint, does it affect less/more on your carbon footprint than non-organic foods? Like does organic foods need less/more resources to grow than non-organic foods? A source I found “ABC science news” said this about organic foods “Organic food crops mostly produce less CO2 emissions, but they also have smaller yields. Making up the difference in yield pushes organic emissions above non-organic.”

When I was calculating my carbon footprint thru the advanced carbon footprint calculator there was a question that said how many hours in a day do you use major home electronics like stereo, this made me wonder, does streaming music online make more/less carbon than playing music on a cd or something similar?                                                                                                   A source I found “phys.org” said this about streaming online music. The greenhouse gases produced by recorded music were 136m kg in 1988 and 200 to over 350m kg in 2016.

It's a harsh term to call ourselves and I apologize, but it seems appropriate in this context. We've been taking things from the Earth and slowly killing it, not giving enough back. But there are a lot of good people in this world who want to help restore Earth's resources and find a balance between man and nature. This planet is very special, we shouldn't let it die so soon.

I agree I think we should do better to preserve the earth instead of treating it so poorly

Although it is natural, too many greenhouse gases can have a negative impact on our planet. For example, in the Arctic, the ice is melting at a concerning rate due to the earth getting warmer. Unfortunately, it's being caused by us. Humans increased the greenhouse gas rate to about 90% in 1970. This is very concerning, plus, the arctic plays an important role on keeping this planet livable. Without it, temperatures would rise even more and we'd all be unable to live on Earth. Hopefully, soon we'll be able to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions on this planet and keep life going for future generations.

Many people don't actually realize how detrimental buying from retailers can be. A lot of the cheap-and sometimes not so cheap- accessible clothing we buy in malls and online use unsustainable labor practices, such as wasting valuable fabric that used a lot of emissions in being created. The textile industry produces nearly 1.2 billion tons of CO2 emissions! Also, a lot of clothing that is still quality is thrown away in the landfill instead of being reused or given to someone who is not as fortunate! If you want to learn more about this, here's a good article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-017-0058-9

I agree, the textile industry is not environmentally friendly. To help solve this problem be sure to use or buy as many second-hand clothes and shoes as possible.

Totally agree and not to mention some big fashion designers use fox fur which is a huge threat to fox population.

I agree, so many people buy huge amounts of clothing at cheap prices and create so many emissions, just to give them away in a few months.

I agree as well the fast-fashion industry is bad for the environment. We should buy the clothing we need from second hand stores and donate our clothes when they are still in decent condition (if they are not in great condition(stiches coming undone, rips/tear,...) then if you have decent sewing skills you could even fix them or alter them so you or someone else can keep wearing them) to those second hand stores or even use something called freecycle or something similar to donate clothes for free. That way instead of them sitting around in a thrift store and eventually being thrown away someone who needs it can get it for free.
Also did you know that clothes used to be so much more durable and long lasting, for example tights which now break at one touch used to be able to tow a truck.

Something else to think about with this topic is the harm the making of these cheap clothing items have on the enviroment. In a news story today posted by CBC (a respected news station in Canada) they identified high levels of harmful chemicals like lead in clothing sold by cheap fast fashion online shops. We have to think about not just the harm that these chemicals are doing to the people wearing this clothing but also to the harm that it's doing to the people making the clothes (often low wage employees touching and breathing in toxins) and the effect on the environment (like the rivers the chemicals are being washed into and the landfills extra fabric is being dumped in.)

I approve and support!  Many people buy clothes from the fashion industry without realizing that there are far too many clothing items in the consumer's closet.

In history climate change has been due to natural occurrences, but this kind of climate change is different. This kind of climate change is due to our impacts. It's different because in history it occurred at a much slower speed and gave time for plants and animals to adapt. This kind of climate change is happening at a speed that plants and animals can't adapt, and is injuring the environment.

how long do you think it'll take to solve climate change, and will it be solved or will we all die?

Maybe. I think it's too late to prevent climate change, but we can still slow it down.

Eco-friendly materials, furnishings, and other green building techniques are becoming very popular. More homeowners are considering how their home construction affects their health, their energy consumption, and the environment. This has led to a trend among builders and homeowners who now use more sustainable and green construction materials and methods in new buildings and home renovations. ¿What Do you think about this?

I think that people caring more about how their home gets built and what furniture used in there would help them while also the environment. I found a site where they have eco friendly houses that are really cool. https://www.homestratosphere.com/types- … dly-homes/ .I feel like more people should live in more eco friendly homes.

I think this is very beneficial to the environment. More people should build sustainably and eco-friendly. This looks like a building wave of the future, and I am glad people are moving in this direction.

Das ist ein toller Trend! Kürzlich las ich über den Bau eines Kasinos, für den ein See trockengelegt werden musste. Da fragt man sich: Warum? Online-Casinos sind jetzt sehr beliebt, ich selbst spiele in einem https://www.slotozilla.com/de/freispiele . Es ist genau wie ein normales Casino, nur dass es manchmal cooler ist: Sie geben Ihnen Freispiele als Bonus. Warum also die Natur zerstören und töten?

I see the humans with extreme pessimist point of view i blame them for the extinction of several thousand animal species and they caused the global warming by raising animals producing electricity ect...

Give some examples please.

over fishing
Cars
Deforestation
Petrol extraction
Wars
Over hunting

trash in our oceans
having to save animals because of our stupid decisions
the fact we have to have breeding programs for almost extinct animals because of us
elephant ivory black market
and more......

Ok, human are bad, then what? I don't think this kind of thought leads us to any practical solution. So beyond discussing about whether human are bad or not we rather have to focus on our current problemes.

Our biggest problem is that our governements that have the power to help stop the global warming but they just care to watch their computer and having a nice sofa on he wich they can put their ass on.

This is a difficult topic for a lot of people, but I have to say I agree with you on this. Humans have done far more damage to the planet than any other force in its entire history (maybe except for events like the Chicxulub impact that killed most things 65 million years ago).

You are right about humans doing a ton of horrible things in our history. But I think that it is more important to focus on what we can do to make up for those mistakes, rather than dwell in the past. All of the bad things that you mentioned are issues that many people are dedicating their lives to solving. Even though humans are ruining this planet we have also done many amazing things. The bad outweighs the good obviously, but we can learn from both the bad and the good.

I agree! Humans don't care about planet earth, and we should not be polluting our planet. We should be taking care of our planet, because if we don't reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, we will eventually destroy animal's lives and our lives too.

The only problem is that if the humans change everything to natural energy and it produces 4 times less than the fossil fuel so it will occupy 4 times the spaces involved in fossil uels industry that meanig more cutting down trees. But fossil fuels pollute a lot more than natural fuels and destroying those places will be even more plluting. Third of all even if all the people on earth say to change it will cost an enormity to the governement eradicating those factories so the removal can only be done little by little. Thank you for your attention zenone2.
If you want to contact me my email is m.sassi26@ejm.org

we need to stop using fossil fuels

Jayarr you have to develop yur statement a bit

We can reduce home energy

Developement of idea daaaa

I agree with you that humans harm our planet. But in my opinion, humans are not that bad anymore. Right now people are doing their best to improve the environment. Many eco supportive programs are being created, different companies change their products and the number of cars and rubbish has greatly decreased. The attitude is changing. I hope that our environmental problems will improve soon.

People all over the world talk of green and economical growth and ecologie but have the same bad ideas that brought us in this mess !!????

I don't think humans are bad. The things we are doing are bad. But develop more about your statement.

Humans can be in some aspects badddd. BUt , if ur a fellow human. How would u feel??? Taking actions are not a joke, please elaborate pon ur point @Zenone.

I agree that not all humans are bad. Sure they have done some things to harm our planet, but they have also done so many things to help our planet such as starting organizations like 4ocean.

I do agree that some human are bad, but we are also humans. I think we should not be blaming ourselves but instead reflect on we can do better to make a world a better place. : ) For example what others said above, maybe we can think of changing everything into natural energy and not using fossil etc... (sorry for the bad grammar)

I agree on some parts. I understand how more than 500 species has gone extinct because of humans but I don't think that humans are bad just because of the things you stated a lot of people are fighting against climate change so not all humans are bad. And if you want to fight against climate change we should start using more eco friendly products.

I agree with this sentiment to a degree, as it is very clear that not all people are ignorant to the ecological needs of our world, but is is incredibly sad to see the lengths at which corporations will pollute our world to make profits.

Yes humans are bad. People make lots of fossil fuels, waste lots of food, cut down way to many trees, and force tons of animals to extinction. We have been killing lots of animals that are almost extinct. This can mess up the carbon cycle and in the long term start something very bad. Something like a mass extinction.

Do you think that there are any differences between the carbon footprints of warmer and colder regions, and if so, why do you think that this might be so?

Hi Franklin! Yes, I think thet carbon footprints bentween warmer and colder regions are different, this because for example in colder regions people use more warming instruments, also in warmer regions people use more green veicles like bikes.

Yes, I think there are differences between colder and warmer regions, because in warmer regions people are more likely to walk or ride bicycles, on the contrary in colder regions people use more cars and other things to warm up

Bycatch is a dangerous practice that has led to a decrease in marine biodiversity. Bycatch is the unintentional catch of any marine wildlife by fisheries. If a fishing boat went out to catch Tuna but caught several sharks, the sharks would be considered bycatch. For this reason, bycatch is almost always tossed overboard as waste. Most marine creatures do not survive this process. Each year, 300,000 small whales and dolphins are killed due to bycatch. Hundreds of thousands of fish, turtles, and seabirds are killed due to this gruesome practice. Bycatch is the biggest threat to the survival of many marine species.
https://www.fishforward.eu/en/project/by-catch/

From doing the carbon footprint calculator I’ve found that my flight across the country released a huge amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. At first I thought that flying is just a bad option for traveling but then I realized that driving the same distance probably is even worse. Anyone know if it would be better for the environment to drive instead of fly?

I, too, was also very disappointed to see just how much travel contributes to my carbon footprint. Now, whether driving or flying is better generally depends on the  circumstance. For example, the less people on a plane, the less greenhouse gases are produced per person. However, I did find an article that said this; “a study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute states the energy intensity of car transportation is on average 57% higher than air transports...because they consume more energy to transport the same amount of passengers.” But this also depends on the type of car and the amount of people in it.

We all know these corporations won't change. They will preach about climate change all they can and asking us to save the climate while they sit there and do nothing. We all know that they are the problem but they want us to change. I mean don't get me wrong we could help in some ways but the earth's getting hotter faster than we can cool it because of corporations. Should we introduce new laws to help the climate? If so what?

I fully agree with you about how corporations will not change, however I feel like laws would be too far. While the fossil fuel industry is cheap for the corporations, it is also cheap for the consumer. The transition between reliance on coal and oil to reliance on solar panels and wind turbines would most likely make electricity very expensive for some people who need it.

I believe that people leave too much carbon footprint.Therefore, we need to approach to this issue more wisely and try to leave carbon footprint as little as possible.Don’t forget about ecology.

I agree with you

The world will be a better place if: we produce less house hold and industrial waste, perform waste water treatment, use clean anergy sources and protect and restore lands and forests

The small details we tend to forget; here are some small ways to reduce your carbon footprint.
- Eat low on the food chain. As you move up in the food chain 90% of energy is released in heat. If you eat lower you will reduce that waste.
- If you are going to fly, fly nonstop since landings and takeoffs use more fuel and produce more emissions.
- Keep the tires on your car properly inflated and get regular tune-ups. When your car’s tires are low on pressure, it has to work harder to move from point A to point B, wasting gas and increasing emissions in the process.
- Consume less. Simply buying less stuff is a good route to lower emissions

i've never thought about this before but i absolutely will now!Lots of people don't realise that things as simple as this can have a pretty big affect on their footprints.

I agree with you and I don' think people realize how big of a difference it would make if something like every person had a vegetarian meal once a week. Something so small would make a big difference if everyone did it which people need to be shown.

I agree, the least we could do to help with climate change is make these little simple changes in our lives. Yes these ideas would definitely make a large impact on your personal carbon footprint! If everyone in the world were to do this it would be great. There are many other options to reducing your carbon footprint, like; not buying the new iPhone as soon as it comes out, not buying new clothes and giving away your old clothes to friends and family or just people who need them. These are all great and very simple ways to reduce your own carbon footprint.

Believe it or not, agricultural by-products, such as meat, poultry, vegetables, contribute more to global warming than transport fuel burning. Around four hundred twenty billion liters of methane is produced daily by the 1.4 billion cows on Earth. Even though methane dissipates faster than CO2, it is 28 times as potent to the warming of the Atmosphere. So EAT MORE MEAT..... 

I think eating meat is good, but you should have a more balanced diet. And here's a video to help you learn more about eating meat.

oh wow i thought that it would be better to eat less meat so that their are less animals being killed but i guess thats a good point to maybe eat more meat and have a balanced diet

oh wow i thought that it would be better to eat less meat so that their are less animals being killed but i guess thats a good point to maybe eat more meat and have a balanced diet

I personally dot eat meat and think that eating meat is fine but in my opinion the way we are mass producing meat is very bad for the environment. The video i linked has some really good meat substitutes and info about how meat can be bad for the environment.

Something we can do to do less pollution and have a better world and here are soem examples and a video
less throwing trash in the ocean
less carbon dioxide

Something we can do to do less pollution and have a better world and here are soem examples and a video
less throwing trash in the ocean
less carbon dioxide

This is a very interesting fact to take into consideration but because of supply and demand, The more animals we eat the more animals there will be. I believe that by limiting our diet and reducing the amount of meat we eat in our day to day lives, we can lessen the demand for meat products and in turn, reducing the effects the agricultural industry has on our planet. 

Eating a little bit of meat isn't bad, but the way we're currently producing meat is really bad for the environment. The amount of animals on this planet that we somehow own or care for is a whopping 60%. crazy isn't it? another thing to think about is that the amount of land in the USA that livestock are taking up is 41%, that's about 800 million acres. now that doesn't mean you have to stop eating meat, just try to eat less.

The person who started this post chain had their first facts correct. Yes animal agriculture produces more carbon than the whole transportation system. Also most of rainforest deforestation was to make space for grazing fields for cows, and the worlds cow population consumes 45 billion gallons of water and 135 billion pounds of food daily, so if you think of all the carbon that goes into produce all of that grain for the cows, that must be a huge amount. So why would eating more meat be good for the environment when it produces so much carbon, and causes all kinds of deforestation all over the world? Also if all the feed we are currently feeding to cows goes to people who are going hungry because their food is used for animal agriculture, wouldn't that be better? So in my opinion all of the facts point to eating LESS meat.

Yes, I totally agree, eating less meat would definitely be better for the environment. There's lots of data supporting this idea as well. Animal agriculture actually makes up for 51% or more of greenhouse gas emissions. like you said a lot of deforestation is happening just to raise cows. Eating less meat would lower the demand for it. Less demand means less production of meat, which means less cows releasing greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.

You have a great point but thats not the case. If we eat more cows thats just making the problem right now worse because the more we eat them the more cows there will be. And the more cows there is the more resources we need in order to feed them. Also eating too much meat is unhealthy so it's important for you to have a balanced and healthy diet, not just eating animals put more green in your foods.

I respect your opinion but I disagree. We shouldn’t eat more meat. Since the only reason why there’s so many of those animals is since their forced to. If they were locked in cages to be fed un healthy things, forced to make baby animals and being killed that takes about 2 months of shower water to make one pound of meat. So if we stop fixing animals to do all that and just let them roam and help gardens so DONT EAT MEAT

I understand that in your point of view if we eat more meat then there will be less cows which means less methane released into the atmosphere by them but...that's not true. If we eat more meat there will be a higher demand on meat in the animal agricultural industry and more cows will be bred. With more cows bred more methane will keep on being released and more water will be used for cow feed. This is the cycle that has been going on for over a hundred years. As you said, four hundred twenty billion litres of methane is released daily by the 1.4 billion cows on the earth, and if we ate more meat those four hundred twenty billion litres of methane would increase. In the end what we should actually do is EAT LESS MEAT. If we become more plant-based eaters the demand of cows and meat will decrease, therefore methane emissions caused by animal agriculture will also decrease. If you want to learn more than I recommend watching this documentary https://g.co/kgs/fdJKqp

I never knew that meat, poultry and vegetables contribute more to climate change then transport fuel burning. This is mind blowing to hear because eating meat is very popular all across the world. Your facts and data sparked a light in me to eat less meat. Also, the 1.4 billion cows in our earth do not help with this issue. I now know the harms of eating meat and now can educate people about this issue.

Testing to see if I can edit & delete a post

no, unfortunately, that is not currently possible.  I have been meaning to
look into the documentation for the forum software we use to see if we can set something like that up.

In the meantime, I (as admin) am the only one who can manually edit or delete posts.

Il mio pensiero e quello di ridurre l'anidride carbonica nell'atmosfera, perché come tutti sappiamo l'anidride carbonica nell'atmosfera inquina e per fare questo ci sono delle soluzioni, ovvero rendere un mondo più sostenibile e responsabile. Altre soluzioni sono: Anzichè usare l'auto possiamo usare la bici o andare a piedi nei luoghi vicini, fare la raccolta differenziata, non buttare i mozziconi di sigaretta a terra.

According to UNHCR, an average of 20 million people are displaced from their homes by natural disasters. Examples of natural disasters that cause the wreckage of homes and safety are droughts, fires, floods, and extreme weather conditions. These are all caused by climate change. Greenhouse gases are rising in the atmosphere, caused mostly by human activity, which unbalances the natural system of keeping the Earth habitual. The more our carbon footprint increases, the more natural disasters are bound to happen. Fires in California are becoming more and more common, with 52,113 taking place last year. Those fires caused the destruction of homes and the homelessness of families, much like the flood in Florida did, caused by a concerningly huge hurricane. If the world fails to reduce the uses of greenhouse gases, especially carbon, the lives and integrity of citizens will become more and more threatened by these disasters.

We do a lot as my students will let you know soon...

At the cafeteria, we eat organic, local food when it's possible, vegeterian meals are available

We sort out our waste at the cafeteria

When we connect on the school computers we can use Ecosia a search engine and the more we use it
the more trees are planted

There is a vegetable garden maintained by some students, called the sustainable development ambassadors. They make Jam, lemonade, and herbal teas for example. We can buy these products and the money goes to the students.

In Renaudeau we have a vegetable garden maintained by some students, called the sustainable development ambassadors.

There is a vegetable garden maintened by some strudents, called the sustainable development abassadors

We have a vegetable garden maintened by some students, called the sustainable development ambassaadors.

The lights in the new building are automatics

In our highschool, there is a partnership with an association for the protection of birds (LPO), so we have insects hotels, birds houses and there is a pond with frogs and toads

Our lights in one of our buildings are automatic

When we connect on the school computers we can use Ecosia a search engine and the more we use it
the more trees are planted

There are birdhouses, insect hotels and a pond with frogs and toads.

There are differents colors of bins in the corridors

The lights in the new building are automatics

There are differents colors of bins in the corridors

when we connect on the school's computers, we can use Ecosia, a search engine, and the more we use it the more they are planted

there are solar panels and we buy green electricity from a supplier

there is an incentive at machines to encourage students to bring back plastic cups so that they can be recycled.

At Renaudeau there are solar panels and we buy green electricity from a supplier

At the cafetaria, we eat seasonal fruit and eat food more local than possible.

Some students have volunteered to become sustainable development ambasador, to create project, propose initiatives, to encourage others students to be more eco-friendly and to learn about eco-systems, environmental issues...

We can buy these products and the money goes to the students association that sponsors the garden too

There are differents colors of bins in the corridors.

there are more and more green plants in classroom

in order to pollute less, sorting bins are in almost every corridors of the high school for the students to sort out their trash

There are different bins in the corridor, to help along the sorting in the high school.

There is a partenership with an association for the protection of birds, so we have insect hotels, bird houses, and there is a pond with frogs and toads

there are solar panels and we buy green electricity from a supplier

There are solar panels and we buy green electricity from a supplier.

A vegetable garden has been put in place in order to eat more local and for the high school to make some money over it

some students have volunteeredto become sustainable development ambassadors, to create projects ,propose iniatives ,to encorage other students to be more eco-friendly and to learn about eco-sustems,environmental issues etc...

some students have volunteeredto become sustainable development ambassadors, to create projects ,propose iniatives ,to encorage other students to be more eco-friendly and to learn about eco-sustems,environmental issues etc...

We can buy our products from the vegetable garden and the money goes to the students' association that sponsors the garden too

Our project is to re-green the high school by favouring the development of biodiversity instead of tar and concrete. For instance, there are more and more green plants in classroom.

When we connect on the school's computers, we can use Ecosia, it's a search engine and more we use it, the more trees are planted on the earth.

In my high school we have a certification called E3D. This means that we are a high school that takes care of the environment. For example, at the cafeteria, we eat organic and local food when it is possible, vegeterian meals ares available. In addition, some students have volunteered to became stainable development ambassadors to create projects and proposes initiative like the use of Ecosia in our computer. And when we use it, tress ares planted.

Most of the students don't think about clogging up our planet.
So many people think that world pollution is a myth that will  never happen. And what does that mean? Our World is  in danger, but only a small part of humanity knows that and tries to change. Other people only aggravate the situation. Everyone should talk about it, everyone should know about it, thats not a joke. People need to unite and try to 'fix' that situation on the Earth or we can live on closing our eyes and losing our Home.

Power and money are two factors that will always counter the effort to reduce to Global Warming. 3rd and 2nd World countries want to develop and industrialize while 1st world countries want to continue their hegemony. This never ending completion will continue the drive of industry and continue the warming of the world.

I’d like to pose an interesting debatable question here: If every human on Earth were to disappear, how would this affect the global climate? Would it become better, and if so, how long would that take? I personally think that the natural environment would eventually return to a stable state, but the damage that we’ve caused is bad enough that it might take several hundreds or even thousands of years to do so.

This is a more complicated question then most people think. It would be very damaging in the first month or so, but obviously benefitable in the long run. there would be permanent things that will almost never go away, sure as mount Rushmore. Here is an interesting video to watch on this subject.

From the carbon calculator, I learned that there are many ways that I can reduce my own carbon footprint in my own everyday life ranging from transportation to home appliance use. Although it can sometimes feel futile to add sustainable practices in our everyday lives when a majority of these emissions are coming from sectors that we don't have control over, I think that we all should try to make our best attempt even if the difference isn't so large.

You predicted that your footprint would be about the same as the average person in
California, United States, and higher than the average human.

Based on your input, your total footprint is 22,432 kgs of CO2 per year, compared to
an average of 9,727 kgs for California, United States, and 3791 kg (= 8358 lb) worldwide.

We as a global community need to work on cleaning up our acts and lowering our carbon footprints. However, this needs to be actively supported and encouraged by our governments. I would like to pose a couple of questions: how big a role do you think that governments should play in enforcing more environment-friendly policies on individual citizens, and should this be accomplished through mainly negative reinforcement (ie fines and bans on environmentally unsafe practices) or positive reinforcement (ie lowering prices on eco-friendly food and fuel costs and a reward system for those with lower carbon footprints)?

dang thats deep

I feel like that is one of the trade-offs when you live in a democracy like the United States. The government overall cannot play any part and tell you how much carbon waste you can or cannot exert. Doing so would void the constitution and would get rid of the best part and main attraction of our country.

I agree with you and I feel like governments need to play a larger part in Climate Change prevention due to the fact that it is an issue that we will see most likely impacting us in our lifetime. The government should play a large role unless people are able to begin being more eco friendly on a mass scale all over the world. I believe that people respond better to positive reinforcement so I feel as though that would be the best way to go about as well as creating new infrastructure that helps to push eco friendly ideas.

While every day citizens definitely need to be held accountable for their contributions to climate change, it is not the most efficient way to stop the climate crisis. The government should not weigh in on its citizens contributions to climate change before they take action on the large corporations that are currently playing the biggest role in the destruction of our planet. The government must address industrial emissions before the blame is put on the people. When our leaders finally learn to care about our planet over the economy, we can begin to secure our future. Until then, I would encourage every day people to do the best that they can when it comes to reducing their carbon footprint by reducing their intake of meat, recycling, reducing air travel and much more! Every person must do their own research and hold our leaders accountable for their immense role in the current climate crisis.

I agree with you the government should do more for citizens , for exemple :
- government requires to buy more electric cars !

I agree with you the government should do more for citizens , for exemple :
- government requires to buy more electric cars !

Although i do think a spotlight needs to be put on better informing everyday citizens on how to reduce their carbon footprint, i do agree strongly that large corporate companies are the ones who need to be dealt with by the government first. Yes there are things we can do as individuals, such as reducing our use of single use plastic, however its large companies producing them in the first place, and consumers who are put at fault for it. These large corporations need to be addressed by the government on their contributions to climate change and polluting our environment, because as consumers, we dont have other more ethical sources to support a lot of the time. The government systems need to realize that if we continue in a society where the economy is valued over the ecosystem, we wont have much of an ecosystem for very much longer.

using less expensive ones

Sin duda necesitamos un cambio de hábitos en el mundo, es muy triste ver el tipo de cambios climáticos qué afectan el equilibrio de la naturaleza
https://jesusmorelos.com/ consultor https://jesusmorelos.com/

Es necesario empezar a crear conciencia en la sociedad sobre las consecuencias que puede tener esto a corto y largo plazo, tomar medidas para disminuir nuestra huella individualmente y después en conjunto para poder generar un cambio.

Así es, necesitamos hacer algo. Además tenemos que ser más solidarios, en Argentina estamos implementando un programa de concientización y de ayudas sociales en conjunto, el programa social se llama Ayudándonos en el cual voluntarios y profesionales nos unimos para generar un cambio. Creemos que es momento de hacerlo y centrar todos nuestros esfuerzos en ello.

Driving is my kryptonite. I love going on road trips or taking the scenic way home. The problem is that lead to my CO2 release being 19465kgs regarding transportation. That extremely high number is not even remotely maintainable for the world. Though I wish my easy solution could be to get an electric car, that is not a easy fix or quick solution for many financially. Though, I can find ways to prevent my gas guzzling car from continuing to pollute our world. I can find people to carpool with so that I decrease the number of cars out on the road. I could use different forms of transportation such as walking, biking, or taking the train. Walking and biking would be ideal, but some places are too far to travel with just those means of transportation. Lastly, understanding that the choices I make about impacting my carbon footprint plays into a bigger picture of climate change and global warming. Those issues don't go away by getting ignored, but by being proactive and making real changes to my everyday life.

If we share these data, with groups of friends, family, we can spread these ideas and act on time. May the current situation make us open our eyes!

I like your optimism on this topic. I find it difficult to imagine that the situation can be fixed at this point, but if enough people like you believe it can be done, than it might happen.

Yes! I totally agree with you. Sharing about this topic with close ones can raise awareness on this issue, counts a lot and could change a lot of people's perspectives on this.

I definitely agree with your statement. Telling people what we know and sharing the Carbon Footprint quiz with others will help them understand and see where they stand with their CO2 emissions. Sharing tips on how to lower their carbon footprints would also be a great way to spread awareness as well.

So uh- i use less then some people, and more then some people. im kinda in between here, i have 7104, so im not to bad. Thats all! :>

Tenemos que formar un cambio en nuestras prácticas y hábitos, duchas más cortas, reutilizar, consumir productor orgánicos y sobre todo informarse para hacerlo de una manera correcta y dejar un mundo mejor para las siguientes generaciones.

I agree with this, as it would be rather disheartening to learn that the world has turned into a wasteland or that the sea levels have risen so much, that certain places don't exist anymore, would be kind of sad. It would also be a bit sad to learn that our grandchildren and their children will have to live in a sort of "different world" than us due to our own mistakes.

Traveling obviously has a major impact on one's carbon footprint. However, how can you compare the amount you travel with the average in your area? Traveling can be for work, educational, or just for fun. This means that the amount people fly can vary in a specific area. I live in California and depending on where you are, you'll meet people of all different backgrounds and circumstances. Some of my friends travel all the time while some have never left the country. Just this year, according to United Aviation, 4.3 billion passengers were carried on a plane. This is a huge number but the large numbers of traveling people are probably only coming from specific places. So, how accurate is comparing your travel-related carbon footprint to those in your area?
Here is an interesting link with more flight and travel-related facts and statistics: https://www.icao.int/annual-report-2018 … -2018.aspx

I'm agree with you.
I live in French Polynesia, in middle of Pacific Ocean. For us, it is very important to be able to travel, even if has a bad impact on carbon footprint. It is something wich is necessary. For exemple, students often have to go in other countries to do them graduate studies, because we have less choice in Tahiti. They have to go to France or Canada, it is very far. Indeed, it takes 22h to go to France by  plane.
Moreover, polynesian people often likes to go to other countries while holidays, for exemple go to California or New Zealand ( it takes 8 and 5 hours to go their by plane!)

The United States contributes 16% of the worlds carbon emissions. That amount is large, sure, but eliminating that amount won't stop climate change, it will only stall the problem. In the US, we should move to renewable energy, magnetic energy, or even nuclear as long as there is reliable producer of it. But, We also need to influence the rest of the worlds actions on the crisis. The way I believe we can approach this problem with foreign strategies is not only through trade agreements and diplomacy, but we can also use competition. I want to give an example from history which is the space race. When the space race occurred, many countries including the US competed for the first space ship to land on the moon. These actions improved the countries economy, their work force, and then the outcome rewarded a winner as the most powerful and impressive. While in that time it was not a competition for our survival as a planet, it still is comparable as in the  US can initiate a race to the least carbon emissions. Countries like Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and more that emit a lot of carbon would compete in this race to the least emissions. Their country industry strategy could be with less oil and more green energy. Every country knows that climate change exists, they just don't have a motivation to stop it. Not only would the race become very entertaining, but it would also be very good for the countries economy. In this race, we would see the world contribute less in carbon emissions and then climate change would slow down at an impressive rate. By the end of the race, each country would have newly designed industries that are environmentally friendly. An example today to just show the power of carbon emissions is the coronavirus. There are images online of the satellite imagery with the air pollution in areas affected by the virus. A before and after picture will show the contrast in air pollution when less people drive versus when more people drive. This race would transform the earth as competition would motivate change as it has in the past. It might not stop climate change, but it will move the entire world closer to a green world.

Link to information used: https://storymaps.arcdsis.com/stos/0c83 … 636a70.org

I think that your idea is good, but a bit too naive.
Indeed, "race to the least emissions" could really give the motivation to countries to reduce their carbon emissions, however the issue is that which country would 'dare' to start this race ? Given the fact that this one country would have to suffer losses without any direct incomes, which seems in our nowadays society of consumption unthinkable.
Also, although the "space race [...] improved the countries economy and work force", I think that the major factor to these benefits we're mostly due to the fact that the Moon was an 'unknown territoty', meanwhile all humans were born on Earth !
Thus, I think that the real requierement to "stop climate change" would first be to change the wole whole mindset of the whole society we live in. Easier said than done !

Es necesario que tomemos el cambio climático con la seriedad que se merece puesto que esto ya no es un "podría pasar" es algo que estamos viviendo cotidianamente y lo estamos minimizando y lo notamos desde las temperaturas elevadas o muy bajas que se presentan día con día, pero en lugar de actuar solo lo estamos dejando pasar, esto ya es un problema que depende de nosotros, si nuestras generaciones pasadas no procuraron el planeta es momento de que nosotros lo hagamos para dejar de afectar a generaciones futuras y ser empáticos. No se necesita tener todo el dinero del mundo ya que con pequeñas acciones generamos un gran cambio desde apagar las luces cuando no las ocupamos hasta reciclar todo lo que podamos, EL CAMBIO ES AHORA!

Crear conciencia es lo importante

Lo mejor para que esta situación deje de empeorar es empezar a creer que tu mismo puedes cambiar tus hábitos, como yo que tuve un porcentaje mayor al promedio, por lo que empezaré a cambiar varios de mis hábitos como duchas más cortas, usar más la bicicleta como transporte y lo más importante informar a los demás sobre esto y como estamos dañando al planeta para que todos empiecen a cambiar y realmente logremos un cambio.

Cada año las huellas de carbono alrededor del mundo van en aumento; la contaminación, los cambios climáticos, el efecto invernadero se va haciendo más evidente y frecuente en el mundo; los ecosistemas, las plantas, los animales, inclusive los seres humanos nos estamos muriendo por los cambios tan radicales que ha sufrido el planeta en los últimos años, nadie sabe cuánto tiempo nos queda y tampoco si sobreviviremos a lo que nosotros mismos  hemos encausado.

En este sitio podemos darnos cuenta del impacto que tenemos en el mundo con nuestras diversas actividades, al igual que en esta página logramos  apreciar con mejor precisión en diferentes categorías como lo es en la comida y ver variaciones en los valores en distintos países es interesante ya que abre una puerta a preguntarnos en que cambia su estilo de vida a la nuestra.

Con este estudio me di cuenta que influye en gran medida el uso del transporte público, en mi familia usamos lo menos posible el coche y fomentamos el uso de otros medios. Siguiendo esta ideología me percaté que podemos mejorar aún más el uso de la energía dentro de nuestros hogares y que el uso de menos empaques y solo comprar los artículos que realmente necesitamos reduce en gran medida el impacto de nuestras vidas en el medio en que vivimos.

Many people believe that electric cars are better for environment but some say that it pollutes the environment even more because it pollutes so much in the process of making the car.

Why should we use public transportation instead of just driving by ourselves?

Because if there are many cars driving with just one person in it then we are contaminateing much more rather than many people like up to 30 people just drive in one car rather than 30 indivitional cars

where can i throw away a ruined electronic ?

go to sorpa and they will help you

I have a ruined lamp at home. How do I trow it away and where?

My country is pretty bad ad ecological thinking. What about yours?

I think that clothe should be recycled

I mean many people already do, whether that be actual recycling or simply donating to thrift shops.

I believe that nuclear energy could be the solution to many of the world's energy needs. Although it gets a bad reputation for only two accidents and its relationship to cancer and war, nuclear energy is actually less harmful to humans and the environment than comparable gas or coal plants. Also with the advancing science and fusion energy it could become 100% clean and sustainable energy source.

OMG YESQ SO LOIKE THE NUKE ENERYG IS ACCUALY 95% EFFICIENT WHEN COL IS ONLY 12 OR SOMETHING AND IT ONLY BLOSE UP +KI LLS PEOPLE WHEN SOMEONE SCREWS UP IT

Put more research into solar panels

I got 4,850 kgs on home energy. What are ways to reduce our home energy footprint?

What are ways that we can reduce our carbon footprint?

People have known for a while that the course we are on isn't the right one and yet here we are. Kids are obsessed with getting the new tech, so i'm wonder what you guys really think? Do we think the world can change our habits? Also I was thinking, we've discussed changing to solar power and eco friendly cars, buying organically but what about families that cannot afford those things?

I think we can change but it's a matter of getting the people responsible for those changes on board. I feel they know exactly what to do to make the world more sustainable but they choose not to because it would be a great cost to the economy and their profits. There are just a ton of political blockades to reaching our goal.

I personally do not believe that the world can change its habits because we are so used to living the way we choose without thinking about the effects it may cause on us and our planet in the long run. I believe that the government should play a huge role in providing eco-friendly resources to families that cannot afford them. Just because someone is unable to afford something that will benefit our planet, does not mean that they should be to blame for our earth dying.

The idea behind Eco friendly cars is great but it has some problems. The first being if its electric many places still don't have enough charging stations and the cars don't hold the charges for long. The second problem that really affects me is Eco friendly cars are smaller vehicles. I prefer bigger vehicles like trucks because i feel safer in them.  I don't know if I would be willing to give that up to drive an Eco Friendly car.

Can the world change in terms of climate change? Yes, I believe the world can change its habits around polluting and warming the earth. This can be changed with politics.
          Politics shape the City, State, Country, and world that we live in. So why can’t politics help slow down the process of killing our world around us? Well it can, an article named “Global Warming Case Closed” by Jeff Goodell provided scientific facts showing what human activity has done to our climate. This article also showed how the governments around the world do not want to help. For example The United States government has many “deniers” of climate change sitting in powerful positions in the government. People change with laws and enforcement especially when money is involved. For example I live in the Bay Area most of the cities in the Bay Area have a 10 cents bag fee. When this was first enforced about 2-3 years ago people were upset. They did not want to have the responsibility to carry a bag every time they went shopping. The flip side is if you do not have a bag and you want a bag yo u pay 10 cents. When I go to the grocery store now  most people have a reusable bag. This was a small local change that happened in my local town level government and most people have changed to bringing a bag in only a short 2-3 year time period.
           Small actions like these do change the way we do things because people can change. When we as humans see something is morally wrong like climate change which we may not live to see the worst consequences of we change. Change can happen and Politics have a huge role to play in climate change.

I personally can see that the world is capable of changing its habits, and everyone wants to have it change but not many people are actually trying to make it happen. In many ways we as an individual can make small steps towards making this change happen, but getting everyone on board with it might take years. Then by the time everyone gets it the emission will be higher than when it was originally brought up for all of us to change our habits.

I think it is too far fetched for the world to completely turn all of this around at this point. It would take more people than are willing.

I personally believe that parts of the world is capable of changing their habits, but I do not think that the entire world is capable of changing. Whether it is because they do not want to or they do not know how some people are just not capable of changing.  It would be nice to see the world develop into a more eco-friendly place , but with the world evolving into a place with new technology coming out all the time I do not think that people would give up their comfort to help the environment.

Yes we can change, I think that every little thing that we do will help or hurt the environment. You have to think about what your doing to pick weather you want to help or hurt. Like taking a 30 min shower will make your carbon footprint compared to a 10 min shower. I think the little things can really help our environment

We could change, but people would have to be willing to. People would have to try to do as much as they can to help and be responsible for their actions. It would take everyone to be able to stop all the bad changes currently happening in our environment.

Nowadays online shopping is a major industry, but is it necessary? Shipping clothes, books, etc, is not needed almost 90% of the time. This quarter amazon made $3.28 billion mainly from their shipping services. Shipping one book all the way from China and wasting the fuel instead of just going to the library to read it, is completely unneeded. It’s a waste of fuel. Instead of ordering pants online, take the bus to Goodwill and get them yourself. This will help eliminate the amount of cars on the road and planes shipping amazon orders from China.

I agree with everything you say but this means that people must use their cars to get to the store if they do not in walking distance. And the buses can cause more pollution than cars do, because of the diesel gas in buses. But I agree that some people in this world can walk themselves to the store instead of wasting the fuel in China.

I agree that online shopping does require lots of fuel and money to ship clothes all over the world. It is much better to go to stores nearby to buy clothing. However, buying clothes from big brand companies still require lots of fuel and energy as most of there items are made in other countries such as China. I agree that it is much better to buy clothes from Goodwill or second hand stores so you don’t contribute to your carbon footprint. I also agree that ordering books (and other things) online can have a big affect on our environment. One option is ebooks, as they help reduce the amount of energy needed to produce books and you will avoid the cost of having to pay for your book with shipping, but the production of these ebooks whether it be ipads, electronic readers, etc. take a lot of energy to produce as well. This being said, I agree that libraries are one of the best places to find and get books. You don’t have to pay money and it doesn’t contribute to your carbon footprint because you are not paying for the production of another book.

I actually disagree with what you are saying. Online shopping is a perfect representation of the capitalist system that we live in. As consumers, we now have millions of products available at the click of our finger. This provides a tremendous boost to the economy and saves us a lot of time doing things. There are several additional things that I disagree with. First of all, shipping materials from other places. Whether you are shopping at the store or online, the products are still coming from the same place. Shopping at a store won't change the fact that carbon is emitted by shipping. While it is true that in areas where online shopping is the primary method of retail, there have been traffic increases (https://www.theguardian.com/environment … e-shopping), meaning more carbon being emitted, this is only a short term problem. The eventual shift from delivery vehicles to drones and other robots will solve this. In addition, I believe that it is unfair to expect us to only shop at Goodwill. While it might be a nice thing to do to buy something  there one time, we should have the freedom to buy what we want where we want it. We have things that we need to do, and online shopping gives us more time to do them. In summary, online shopping is not the problem, but rather technologies that we use to execute it.

Online shopping is very convenient but it is not always good for the environment. A lot of fuel can be used shipping things from place to place and that really pollutes the atmosphere. Instead, you could just walk to your local thrift store and not pollute as much and reduce your carbon footprint.

Ok. So it's 2018. literally, everyone knows that gas-powered cars, buses, and other methods of transportation are harmful to the environment and are a big reason why climate change is happening. If you didn't know... have you been living under a rock? Why is it that only some people have electric cars and not everyone. Don't you think there should be a law banning fuel powered automobiles?It seems to me, that everyone knows the effects of pollution but no one really cares. I think the world should wake up and cut off the mass production of modes of transportation powered by gas and start making it mandatory to have electric cars. Besides, electric cars are not only awesome for the environment but quieter and let's face it, even have better designs honestly. This is just what I think, but feel free to debate my opinion or agree with me.

There are a few problems with only electric cars. Not only would it take a huge amount of time to implement this policy but it would be extremely difficult to change production lines in car factories so suddenly. They would have to change programming for any robots, sign new contracts for the parts needed, possibly expand the factory and numerous other minor and major adjustments to other aspects, including dealerships across the country. Car dealerships would be closed for long periods of time while they switch out and scrap vehicles en masse, causing huge amounts of wasted material. Not only that but it's not financially stable, electric cars have a huge price tag and would make it so less and less people have cars and slowly lose communication. There is also the fact that we would be forced to cut off numerous trade routes with other countries which would most definitely anger them. You also have to think about the smog created by the new factories or converted ones made specifically for these electric engines and giant batteries which cost us dearly in rare resources . If we were to make the switch, it would have to be in years when it wouldn't be as costly to consumer and creator. If anything, a switch to Hybrid cars is a little more viable. A nation-wide switch would be too costly for companies, and in a capitalist society, that is a HUGE problem. I hope you take my side into your decisions for all.

Coming from someone who's mom drives an electric car, I personally don't think electric cars are "ready" to some extent for everyone to be using them.  First of all, we can only generate so much electricity to charge these cars.  Secondly, my mom's car has a range of just 82 miles (91 including the emergency reserve), meaning she burns through over half of her battery just from commuting back and forth to work.  Finally, while electric cars are generally much more fuel efficient than gas-powered cars, they do still require an energy source, and as of now, we don't have the energy sources to power the 1.105 billion people who currently use an automotive vehicle.

I think one of the main factors in electric car usage is price. Many eco-friendly cars or vehicles that use electricity as fuel are much more costly than a used cheap gasoline powered stick-shift. Most people don't have the money for a Tesla or a Prius even. When given the option to choose a nice, expensive electric car over a decent priced, gas vehicle, most would choose the latter option. Another contributor is transitions. For years and years the world has used gas-powered cars and has finally gotten used to them. We as humans have gotten comfortable with using up resources and wasting fuels on ourselves, so the switch over to electric would take an extremely long time. Also, there is always the factor that electric could short out or start a fire, as mechanics and scientists still have yet to perfect the model. Cars are a huge aid in transportation in the world today, and we rely on them heavily to get from point A to B. With all these factors in hand and still many other things that have the capability of going wrong, the human race is not ready for simply "switchin g" to electric cars. It would be too costly, influential, and risky. The next gen of cars simply need to be coated one layer by layer onto us, not dumped immediately like spilled paint.

One of the main reasons electric cars are not being implemented into society as much as we'd all like is because of the cost.  This is the scenario with most things in our society involved bettering our environment.  Like cars, many alternate and eco-friendly forms of electricity are not used because they are just too costly.  Another reason why electric cars are not used a lot is because they can only travel so far compared to gas-fueled cars that can travel long distances without having to refill their tanks.

Electric cars are expensive. The batteries alone are very expensive and basically nobody can afford that. I agree that the idea of an electric car is good but they're actually not very reliable and most people aren't willing to spend more money on something that isn't very powerful or stable. They're not very good even though they are more eco friendly

Electric cars are always a better alternative, but they still produce Green House Gases, a factory is producing that battery and car which uses carbon. And they are much more expensive.

Because, if you do that, you will need every single car companies and human being on the planet Earth to use and create electric cars. It may take many years and I doubt everyone does that. Also it's more expensive to have one.

Electric cars also do not have the best range and they take a long time to recharge. Also, not everybody can afford them, especially people in poor countries

Although it would be nice if everyone drove an electric car, there is a little more to it than that.  For one thing electric cars are very expensive.  Plus if there was even a way to make a world wide law where everyone could only drive electric cars, then people would be forced out of their cars.  Then, what would people do with a car that they can't get any money off of it so that they could  put it towards the electric car because nobody would want the car.  To conclude, we have a long way to go until all average cars are band.

Another alternative is too make gas prices higher?

that would cause many people to lose money, not get electric cars.

Not every body cant have an electric car because e-cars don't go as last as long as a car that uses gas. Electric cars are much better but what if you have a job where you have to drive a heavy load behind your car, a e-car cant do that, but a gas car can. An electric car takes at least 4-5 hours to charge fully and what if you are on a road trip. When you have a gas car and you run out of fuel it only takes about 5 minutes to fuel up your car and keep going. Think about how long it would take you to get to your destination if you had to stop every ones and a while. I'll give you hint it would take you along time.

Brandon is correct, but what about hybrid cars?

A 2018 study from the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute found that electric vehicles cost less than half as much to operate as gas-powered cars. The average cost to operate an electric vehicle in the United States is $485 per year, while the average for a gasoline-powered vehicle is $1,117. This will contradict some other people's arguments in previous posts. Another argument AGAINST electric cars is that the trash generated by trading gas cars for electric cars is immense. The number of cars in the world right now is at 1.15 billion. The average weight of cars is around 4000 pounds. 1,150,000,000 multiplied by 4000 is 4,600,000,000,000 pounds. That is the amount of trash that will be generated by trading out gas cars for electric ones. So this is a  unsteady stance by me, but I am just making two separate points on this ongoing argument.

I totally agree! Electric cars will in the end save people and the world money. First without the use of gas you can ultimately save money if you take good care of the car.  Also the cost of global warming will be much higher than the cost of a car if we do not covert soon. This is a great topic and I'm glad to share this with you.

While I believe that electric cars could help lesson humans' carbon footprint, not everybody has access to them. Electric cars are also limited in the distance they can go. My family has a Nissan leaf, and because of its battery life we are unable to take it on long car rides and road trips. It is important to charge electric cars responsibly. My family tries not to charge our leaf overnight because we don't want to waste energy. It only takes a few hours to charge, but leaving it plugged in over night would be a large source of wasted energy. It is also important to think about where the energy comes from that we use to charge electric cars. Overall I think there are pros and cons to electric cars. They would help to lessen humans' impact on the planet and with technology advancing everyday we can work to solve the problems we see in them.

I also agree. Electric cars should become more available to more people. I also think that scientists should find ways to make a electric car battery last longer. One other problem is charging stations. When you are going on long road trips, where do you find charging stations? There are not enough charging stations in many places to support electric cars. This is what repelled my family from buying an electric car.

Although electric cars by themselves help the environment, the way they are produced and what electricity is used to charge them can often times not contribute to lowering down CO2 emissions. Like all things, creating an electric car requires a lot of rare metals that come out of mines and are processed in less than green ways to produce things. This fact goes for solar panels to.
   If we were to not factor in CO2 emission from the electric car, there were still be CO2 emission involved in creating  the energy used to power the car, unless your local power plant is green. This includes wind turbines, and solar panels, however most power plants produce carbon dioxide.

While I agree that greenhouse gas emissions from gasoline-fueled vehicles contribute greatly to global warming, the solution isn't as simple as everyone using electric cars. While they are cleaner up front in terms of emissions, dead batteries still have to go somewhere. Only a small fraction of materials in the batteries can be recycled, so the rest ends up in landfills. These batteries can leak toxic chemicals into the soil, which is harmful to the local wildlife and plant life, as well as the environment. A study conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists concluded that "even in areas with high-pollution power plants, one mile of driving in a plug-in EV is only marginally worse than one mile of driving a very fuel-efficient gas-burning car". I still think that electric vehicles are the way of the future, but the technology still has a long way to go.

Many people choose to buy a gas-powered car rather than an electric car for many reasons. Some people, if commuting very far to work or traveling, are afraid of the battery dying in the middle of their commute. Although they are becoming more common, charging stations are needed to be more accessible to people just like gas stations are now. Also, the electricity that is used to power the cars needs to be created somewhere. Most likely, the electricity is not coming from a reusable or sustainable source. I realize that buying and driving electric cars may seem like a simple way to solve our problem but our world relies on gas-powered cars as a way to get around and even after converting to an electric car, the sustainability may just be in the owner's head.

I agree with you Caitlin, the source of the electricity is key!  However, in the future, it makes sense for us to electrify everything (cooking, heating, driving, etc), and then we just have to green the electricity sources.  That's a simpler solution, isn't it?

Jason,
Yes, to fully electrify everything would be a simpler solution. But you have to remember that we fully rely on gas-powered things, not only cars. To fully convert to using only electric power will take a long time and a lot of effort not only from people who want to change now but from others who may not care or believe in change. Yes, I do agree with you, but the next question is how are we supposed to do this?

I do agree but there are still problems with electric cars. Their battery, for example, only last 100,000 miles, according to Union of Concerned Scientist. There are still many problems with the electric car battery, especially with the manufacturing and disposal of the battery.  A battery consists of many materials including lithium, cobalt, nickel and more. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, 60% of the global cobalt supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has had issues with human rights. While some of the materials in the batteries are recyclable they require time and money and even then are hard to recycle and pollute in the process. After it cannot be used anymore, some get recycled, get shipped to a foreign country like Mexico, or get disposed of improperly, therefore hurting the environment and undoing all the years of zero emission. Also for some people, electric cars are not an option because they have to drive long distances and electric cars limit the number of miles people can drive between charges. But in the future with more t echnological advances I think scientist will be able to expand the number of miles driven between charges therefore allowing more people to have electric cars as an option. But until then I think a good alternative is for people to have one gas and one electric, like my family!!

I agree with Catlin, we should make the leap to electricity but, electric cars are also not the most affordable or practical.  My family has looked into investing in an electric car but with few used electric cars on the market, it is easier to get a used gas-powered vehicle.  Hopefully one day we will make the switch to electricity but for now, we should prepare and use all the time we have.

I agree that owning a gas-powered and an electric car would be an excellent idea, but a hybrid car/s would help with the problems of charging and batteries.  And if, like me, you live in a rural area with the nearest charging station 20 miles away, a hybrid might be a better option.  Another negative on electric only cars is the power; flat paved streets, it works great, but mud, snow, hills, not so much.  I hope that soon electric cars will have the power to travel longer and more strenuous distances and more people will start using them.

I agree that owning electric cars would be better for the environment. They would release less air population and the more people that have more electric cars the bigger the impact would be. But since electric cars are not the most affordable cars it would make it harder to get one and probably most people would go for gas-powered cars because they are inexpensive. In the future, electric car prices would start lowering because technology would be more advanced it would be easier and cheaper to make one and this would make people buy electric cars.

I agree that everyone owning electric cars would be a good idea and would benefit the environment significantly. But I don't think they are at the point where they can be convenient for everyone and they may still be too expensive for many people. I think that depending on where you live, they will be more convenient, for example: if you live in a rural area you won't have as much as an opportunity to use an electric car since there may not be many charging stations at the moment in rural areas. I also think that they are too expensive and primitive at the moment, so the government can't ban gas-powered cars since too many people own them and they are not able to buy an expensive electric car. Electric cars will become commonplace once they become cheaper and convenient for people.

I do agree with you that electric cars are way more energy efficient that gas powered ones. But they can be hard to find and really expensive. Also electric  cars can be hard to use and some can be super complicated. I do believe that we should have more people with electric cars, but we should realize that they are not as common and not everyone will get them.

I agree that people should use electric cars but electric cars cost way more than gas fueled cars

Although electric cars are very beneficial to our environment, they are more difficult to obtain and they are way more expensive to own and maintenance than gas fueled cars. For electric cars, many people would need to have a charging station at their home. This would cause them to have to pay extra on their electricity bill. Of course, this would only be a problem if the person didn't have a place of work where there were chargers for their cars. Many retail stores and other places of business have begun to add ports for the electric cars to charge, but there are still those who cannot because of their job.  Also, the automotive industry could easily make the prices for these cars lower to benefit the environment but they are mostly about making money.

Electric cars are definitely the route to go if you can afford it, however, these cars can be very expensive and not everyone is fortunate to have money. Some people just want a more efficient way to get around other than walking. Banning fuel powered cars seems like an ideal option to decrease CO2 levels but it will upset the people who are going to struggle to pay it. Also if everyone has an electric car, where will all the gas stations go? We would have to destroy the gas stations and construct charging stations. This would lead to the same, possibly more CO2 than there was initially. You have to look at the overall contribution and undertaking this would cause.

It is true that electric cars are way better for the environment than gas powered cars but they are also a lot more expensive. Some people can't afford a basic, used car let alone a $65,000 Tesla. If someone has the money and isn't trying to better the environment with electric cars then that is there fault and they truly don't car but for a lot of people it just isn't practical. If there was a way to make electric cars cheaper than I think companies and people should stop selling and buying gas powered cars but until that happens not much can be done.

I agree with you in saying that electric cars are a lot more efficient.  But, you have to realize a majority of the population cannot afford electric cars.  It is true that electric cars are a lot better for the environment but it is simply out of most people's budget.  If a company was to find a way to create cheaper electric cars that are accessible to most of the population, then this way of reducing emissions would be viable.  Even a 2014 used Tesla is still almost $30,000.  Until that price decreases, it is basically impossible for "everyone" to use an electric car.

https://www.tesla.com/inventory/used/ms

electric cars are better for the environment but most ways we produce electricity also produce pollution

I can see this being the future of cars however with modern day technology getting the batteries for these cars it's difficult because we only have a finite amount of rare earth metals, and these metals are crucial part in the battery is for these cars. But also it's a matter of sure it's not your car however where did that energy come from where did the energy come from that made that car. And odds are came from a coal powered plant. And at the end of the day that produces more CO2 because it's a less efficient process

I disagree, at the current state electrical
cars are being produced it effects the environment much more than a regular combustion engine; because these cars take rare earth elements to make. Because of the complex batteries they use, it currently takes more energy to produce an electric car than a conventional one. That being said if there was a better way to produce these cars I would completely agree.

There is another problem. I live in rural Maine, and if I were to buy an electric car, not only would I not be able to charge the car anywhere, but within 2 months the chassis would be unusable because of the damage done by the dirt roads.

I agree with you in that it would be great if people in Maine would switch to electric cars but we would have to work really hard to get it to work. We would have to instal tons more charging stations. That would be really expensive so we would also have to get a grant from the government. Maybe a good solution to this problem would be to get hybrid cars so you could run electric but if you ever ran out you could always switch to gasoline if you really needed it.

Currently, in Maine, we don’t see many electric cars. I believe this is due to the price of electric cars, and the lack of public charging stations. To be able to incorporate electric cars into everyday life, the price must drop. Then, as the consumer base rises, more charging stations internationally will simultaneously rise.

for Everyone to use electric cars will just not work because of pricing. Most electric cars are unaffordable and need to be charged for long spans of time making them inconvenient when they must be charged.

I agree that electric cars would be hard to accommodate, but that it is a good idea in general. The problem about electric cars on dirt roads could be solved by either improving road quality, or making electric cars better on dirt roads. Lowering the price, and putting more charging stations both need to happen if electric cars are to succeed. Another solution to lower our carbon budget for transportation is instating a minimum MPG for cars and trucks. This minimum does not have to be very high, but if more cars could be more fuel efficient, it would reduce emissions, and the amount of money spent by car owners.

We can't all use electric cars because well first and most important, people can not afford to purchase one, or was never in the conversation when buying one. Second people just don't get to see how much carbon they are outputting and will continuously keep driving gas cars.

I agree it would be great for cars to go all electric. People keep saying that electric is taking over, but in all honesty it's not happening fast enough and no one is trying to make it happen faster. There are places like where I live that don't have charging stations, so even if people come here from out of state they have to go somewhere else to charge their car or hope that someone they are staying with has a car charger. Another problem is most electric cars are expensive because the technology they are using in these cars is still relatively new and hard to get. Also the whole electric car thing is still pretty new meaning that there aren't a lot of used ones for people who can't afford the brand new ones. Electric cars also tend to be pretty small. So they aren't always a good family car. Most families have at least one big car where they can all fit along with stuff for trips, friends, or family. As they start to make bigger models they may become more appealing to people. I'll use my family for an example. There is my mom, my dad, me, and my little sister. We ha ve a Honda Odyssey(a minivan) and a Honda Pilot. These are big cars. The pilot fits eight including the driver and the odyssey fits seven including the driver. Me and my sister both play sports fours seasons a year. During these seasons we drive our teammates to practices and games. My parents also coach sports meaning we have their teams gear in the back almost all the time. When we go on trips we put the back seats down and fill it with bags and we sometimes bring our dog. So they are just to small. It would be a great car for no more than three people. Once you hit four, most of the time the cars become to small. My family would be willing to look into an electric car if they were bigger. In the meantime we need to put some regulations around the minimum mpg cars can get. If we can make cars more fuel efficient while electric cars advance and become more popular, we could reduce some of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

Altho I think that fully electric cars would be much more eco-friendly this would take a huge amount of time to implement this policy but it would be extremely difficult to change production lines in car factories so suddenly. Maybe a good solution to this problem would be a slower introduction to electric ars the slowly switches all vehicles made from now on to electric so that as people start to buy new cars more and more people would have electric vehicles.

I agree with you 100%. If people in power cared more about the environment than they cared about their wallets, this would be possible. Car companies care more about making money than living sustainably, so electric cars are extremely expensive. The way the economy is set up, it is impossible for every driver to own a car. It's sad that this is the case, but since we live in a capitalist society, that's what happens.

While this is true, electric cars can be expensive and not everyone can afford them! It's important to realize that not everyone has as much privilege as you do and may not be able to afford these kinds of things...But there are also other reasons why it would not make sense for some people to get electric cars. They aren't all good. For example, electric car batteries are also detrimental to the environment. Producing the batteries contributes TWICE as much to global warming and double the energy, too. For this reason electric vehicles can actually be MORE detrimental to the environment than gas cars. I encourage you to look at this website: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/11/ … er-energy/. Furthermore, there are many places that don't have charging stations, and therefore it makes zero sense for the average person living there to get an electric car because they will have nowhere to charge it. For example, when going on a roadtrip, if there aren't enough charging stations along the way, the car is essentially usele ss. Regardless, carbon emission from vehicles will pose a threat to the environment. Public transportation and carpooling can reduce more effectively, I think. The real problem in my opinion is the massive amount of people on the road on a daily basis, not necessarily the kinds of cars they drive.

True in the sense that electric cars are more efficient and are more suitable to the environment in many different ways. However, I also have to agree with everyone else here, not everyone can afford it. Most people have already bought their cars and don't really need another one. However, the next generations could probably look at electric cars as their first choice in a personal vehicle. Maybe the prices will go down if there's a higher demand for it. For right now, in terms of reducing carbon emissions in vehicles, we can carpool, bike, take a transit bus, or subway/train.

Electric cars tend to be much more expensive than gas-powered cars and not everyone can afford it

I agree with what you are saying, and I do think that electric cars should be more accessible because these gas-fueled transportation is ruining the earth, but I do think it will take a while to get everyone to use an electric car and they are pretty expensive. I think another alternative to this would be riding a bike, scooter, or even walking, or maybe there should be a time where no one uses there cars, I don't know, but what I'm saying is that if electric cars can't happen for everyone then we need to think of alternatives for these electric cars.

i understand what youre saying, but not everyone can afford such an expensive car. since they are somewhat "new" they will be expensive for quite some time. i think naturally over time most people will be using electric car but you cant force it. as people used to use walking and horses to get around, cars were made and they were too expensive but a new invention was made a little later on and everyone switched to cars well most everyone. some people right now in 2019 cant even afford a gas powered car. i think it would be a cool idea if we could make public transportation electric powered but im not sure how it works.

There is no "just making electric cars more cheap". Especially in the states. With major oil companies and car companies it would be near impossible to do that. I think if people want to make an impact they should support and encourage people to get electric cars or reduce the use of gas cars.

I certainly agree that we need to use more electric transportation.  The main two problems would be that electric vehicles are more expensive, and it's difficult to access fuel (charging ports).  I think that the first problem could be solved with the government: if they were to put in place heavy taxes on gas/diesel and purchasing fossil fuel- powered cars, people would be more likely to go for that option, because people don't want to waste their money.  Secondly, if the demand for electric vehicles went up, then there would be more charging ports for those kinds of cars; supply and demand dictates that.  Additionally, if the government (or even private corporations) invested in the recuperation of our environment, then they could give out grants to engineers or scientists to make charging electric cars more efficient than it currently is, and therefor make people more willing to invest in it.

I just did a similar post and I have been thinking about this topic for a while and settled on pushing for only hybrids and just slowly eliminating cars that run completely on gas and to put so rewards for trading in gas cars for a hybrid or electric one.

See now that is very true and this would extremely help our planet and its health. But just like most other ways of keeping the Earth clean. It is expensive. As there are just so many, only electric cars in the car world and a good amount of them aren't available to the not so upper-middle class. The only car I believe that would be good for this statement , and is also not hella expensive is a Prius. But nobody likes a Prius or people who drive Prius'

Electric cars are generally better for the environment because they don't produce as many greenhouse gasses but it would be hard to upgrade to them. They are very expensive and they also require an energy source to charge them. We do not yet have the energy it would take to charge all the electric cars that would be used every day.

There are over 250 million cars on the road in the United States. The Earth and its many resources have been greatly affected due to the increase of greenhouse gases. Human activity, such as the use of cars, contributes to the greenhouse effect, which is the warming of the lower atmosphere and surface of a planet. We use 1/5 of all the world’s oil in order to fuel our cars, which is equivalent to 13 million barrels of oil a day. The average passenger car emits 80 pounds of hydrocarbons, 606 pounds of carbon monoxide, 41 pounds of nitrogen oxides, and over 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air, which is harmful to our environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stated 2012, “Pollution sources that move, such as cars, trucks, bulldozers, and trains are known as ‘mobile sources’...Nationwide, mobile sources represent the largest contributor to air toxics. Air toxics are pollutants known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health or environmental effects.” A solution in order to help our environment is to carpool with others. Carpooling is benefici al and should be done more often because it reduces the amount of traffic congestion, reduces traveling costs, and it is greener for the environment.
     Carpooling reduces the amount of traffic by taking another car off the road. The typical rush-hour commuter spends more than 31 hours in traffic than in 1892. When the amount of traffic decreases, it results in a reduction in fuel consumption, commute time, and the cost of road repairs. When we carpool, we can save 85 million gallons of gas per year. The U.S. can save 33 million gallons of gas per day if each vehicle carries one more person with them. Carpooling is also greener for the environment. When we carpool, there can be 220,000 fewer tons of emission released into the air. It also reduces the need for drilling or mining for crude oil. We use gas for fuel. As seen by the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill, mining for crude oil can possibly damage our environment. Also, carpooling reduces the demand for road widening. Road widening cuts down trees, and tress help to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. When there are less trees, there is more carbon in the air.
     During middle school, one of my friends lived two minutes away from my house, so we would occasionally carpool to school in the mornings. Now in high school, we have set up a carpool system with two other people in the afternoons. Carpooling is a great way to help you and your environment.

I think that schools should organize ways to let students know where they (approximately) live compared to one another. I live 25-35 minutes away from my school. My brother and I only take one person with us in the morning and judging from the number of people that attend where I go, many more people definitely live fairly close to wear I do. It would make such a difference to share the ride. Plus, carpooling is a great way to meet new people. And if you don't seem to connect with the person in the backseat, just remember what a great difference you are making to the environment. Aside from that, traffic would decrease if more people were involved with this. If schools organized something to put this into action, then nobody could use the excuse that he/she "just did not know who lived nearby"

I completely agree. I think that if more people carpooled then there would be less pollution from the gas that the cars emit. Also i think it would be a good idea to carpool home if you can, that way more people are being energy efficient and are helping the environment.

This is a great idea! Schools could create a sheet where at the beginning of the year everyone could sign there name next to where they live. Then someone could post the list to let people know if anyone near by can carpool. I did some research and I found that annually most cars emit their own weight in carbon dioxide, and I learned that if people carpooled more we can reduce that emission by almost half its amount. You can take the challenge to carpool with others and then talk about it on this website posted below.
http://www.carbonrally.com/challenges/29-carpool

This is a good idea! The dance team at my school has a sheet that they send out to everyone with all of the girls' addresses and it worked out really well. We practice early and a lot of girls were able to coordinate rides with others who lived close to them. I used it too and I carpool with two other girls in my area. It was really helpful to everyone and I totally think that schools should do this too. Carpooling helps save money, and the environment. Sightline Institute says that the average car with just one driver emits 1.10 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile. By carpooling with just one other person, that number decreases by two thirds. It also creates less traffic. http://greenblogic.com/wwwgreenblogicco … ving-Money

One of the largest contributors to pollution comes from our cars. In my city, many people use public transportation; however, most drive their own cars to get from place to place. I think carpooling could significantly reduce the amounts of carbon dioxide released into the air. By carpooling, we are taking many unnecessary cars off the roads, making them safer and reducing the amount of traffic. I'm the oldest of four children, so my family has always been carpooling with others in order to get each child from place to place. Currently, I carpool with one other girl to and from school every day. However, I'm sure I could eventually carpool with even more girls living in my area. Doing so may not seem very significant, but as more and more people begin to carpool, the positive impact may become more clear. It might be inconvenient to carpool at first, but I believe it's worth sacrificing for. As we reduce the number of cars on our roads, we're creating a more earth-friendly environment for future generations.

I completely agree with everything that's been said so far. I live 25-30 minutes away from school, and I really want to carpool, I just haven't found anyone close enough to do it with. CO2 emissions from cars have gone up by 45% from 1990-2007. The number of vechicle miles travelled in the US will reach 3 million in 2030. If we carpoool, we might not reach that number, and we can start saving energy and releasing less CO2 into the atmosphere. Thew estimated number of seats empty in an average car ride is 3.75. if we carpool, that number will slowly become less. My source for the stats is: http://www.carpooling.com/press/company … rket-data/

I agree with you both and fortunately for my family my brother, my cousin, and I all attend the same school so we carpool together and it saves my family lots of gas, money, and time. I also live very close to school and a few times a week I use public transportation to get home from my after school activities. When I calculated my carbon footprint I was glad to see that I was very low in the transportation category! I want to do as much as I can to keep our planet healthy!!!

I am aware that humans are a giant cause of climate change! I have asked my family to make many changes in our households. We all have tried to unplug appliances and have done less driving and more walking. As I have been studying about climate change I have learned that we are not the only mammals affected by this, animals living in the oceans that have extremely high CO2 levels are also having to adapt to the climate changes and it is definitely not easy. I hope to find more information about climate change and what I can do to help these mammals living in these oceans.

This is very good topic and makes a good point. Carpooling is like a two for one. One like you cited in your writing it is helping the environment with pollution. Since Global Warming is such a huge thing going around the U.S. this is one of the easiest and simplest ways to help. I live a couple houses away from a couple kids that go to my school and couple years ago we would carpool with them every day. This was the best feeling in the morning cause one you are able to reduce the carbon dioxide levels and two start the morning off with a nice little chat.
   Secondly, like you said, you are able to make new friends or keep up with your friends at the same time. Carpooling is one of the best ways to start off saving the environment. If one out of every three family's either walk, bike, or carpool with someone the carbon dioxide levels would decrease rapidly and make a big difference in the world.

This is a really good idea that should be put to practice.  I live close to my school but i know several people who could really use carpooling as an option to get to school.  Traffic has always been a problem from where i live and it can only get worse with the increasing numbers of cars on the roads.  With the idea of carpooling, pollution could decrease by having a reduced amount of cars.  Humans have always had a habit of needing to drive their cars to school or work from home when there are infinite amounts of solutions to make traffic and human pollution worse than it already is by simply trying on new ideas such as this one.
Some communities have tried to make the idea of hybrid cars a way for people to save more money on gas which has had success but that hasn't really caught on with all people yet.  Also the idea of electric cars has always been something inconsiderable for the general public and most of the time it can be way too expensive for buyers that haven't really grasped on to that idea either.  If the society together makes an effort to prevent human po llution from getting worse by using ideas like this, pollution can very well be a problem we can fix step by step.

I totally agree with your idea. A lot of people in United States and around the world releases a lot of carbon dioxide from transportation. I realized that not a lot of people carpool. I mostly carpool with my friend to go meet for my cross country, but not to school. I think carpool helps reducing the carbon dioxide and also it saves our gas. It is good for people and also to environment. I should try to carpool with other people who goes to my school.

I agree completely.  Cars and trucks account for about one fourth of the carbon dioxide released into the air in the United States.  I also carpool to and from school.  I carpool with 3 different kids to school, one being my brother, and 2 different girls from school.  I think it is also very convenient to carpool because if you carpool with 3 other kids, you only have to drive one fourth of the time as opposed to every day.  It definitely has a positive impact on the environment, as it reduces the amount of carbon dioxide released.  On my middle school's website, they had a page where they listed kids who lived in the same zip code to help arrange carpools.  I think this is a great idea, and I think other schools should also do it.

With carpooling in the United States 56,000 miles of traffic is avoided. Only 10% of Americans carpool and 85 million gallons of gas is saved every year. This would have a huge impact on the amount of carbon released into our environment. Imagine the results if that number was doubled. That would mean with just 20% percent of Americans carpooling, over 100,000 miles of traffic would be avoided and 170 million gallons of gas could be saved yearly! Carpooling is a great easy way reduce our carbon footprint on the earth. It would be easy and simple to find someone who lives near you when your going out. If you haven't already, try carpooling! An estimated $1.1 billion is saved every year and you might even make a new a friend.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/carpool-statistics/

All these facts are mind boggling. 56,000 miles is like the total mileage on my car. The fact that all of that is saved during a year is crazy. Carpooling can be a bit of an invonvenience though, so it would be hard to get more people to do that.

These facts are crazy! I carpool an hour every day to and from dance so it is great to know I am contributing to help eliminate the emissions. Great post!

This is very interesting! Transportation was the majority of my carbon footprint! From reading this, I will know how to improve that.

Carpooling would help lower your Carbon footprint.

thats a great idea because it saves people gas and pollute the earth less and thats a good thing

I'll bet there are good smart phone apps in some places for offering and finding a carpool ride.

In some cities, there are certain travel lanes that are only for carpools and buses. So while Cody is correct that people will usually gravitate towards the most convenient option, it may actually be more convenient to find a person to share a ride with, and then be able to travel more quickly (and dividing up the fuel and any toll costs would make it cheaper as well)!

Hi Kamsi,
Your post is very good and informative. I had no idea how much of an impact carpooling has on our carbon footprint. The only downside I have to carpooling is the convience (will someone want to go somewhere at the same time you do?) and also who pays for the gas needed for each car? Great post!

I completely agree that carpooling in the United States would help our environment and reduce our carbon footprints. Like you said, if we all carpooled we would save gas and reduce the amount of traffic on roads. This would ensure that we travel more safely and efficiently! Unfortunately, cars release harmful carbon emissions into the air when they use gasoline as fuel. Therefore the more we travel by way of car, the higher our carbon footprints are. However if we were simply to all carpool with one another, we would be saving gas and reducing our carbon footprints! Another suggestion for reducing our carbon footprints would be to ride bikes to nearby places. Riding bikes would allow us to improve our fitness while ultimately reducing our carbon footprints.

Yes, i agree with you. Carpooling would be great in an environment like ours were we pollute the earth a lot while not even knowing it. If we carpool we could save gas and possibly reduce the accidents that occur on highways because not that many cars will be driving.

I have never thought that carpooling could make this big of impact on saving that much gas. I do believe that more people should consider carpooling. Carpooling is also a great time to talk to friends or family

I completely agree with carpooling and i also do it myself on school days with my neighbors. Yet i didn't know it would have such a big impact, very informative.

Carpooling is a really good idea in order to reduce as much pollution in the environment that you can. Your idea was extremely useful and should be considered by everyone with cars.

Carpooling can reduce your carbon footprint. This website assists you in finding people in your area who are interested in carpooling.
http://www.carpoolworld.com/carpool_Florida_USA.html

I carpool with several juniors everyday to and from school. There are usually 3-4 of us in a car at one time. Instead of taking 3-4 cars a day, we take 1. Our carbon footprint improves by a lot just by saving the amount of cars we take. According to http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-r … /refs.html a car's average carbon footprint is 14.46. We preserve around 86.76-115.68 kg of our carbon footprint a day just by carpooling. Carpooling is a good idea if you live among several people that go to the same school as you that can drive. It would be amazing if everyone in the city you lived in carpooled with other people. Imagine the amount of carbon footprints in the city would decrease.

Hi, I'm Rachel. That's awesome that you guys are able to work together and reduce your carbon footprints through carpooling! My total carbon footprint was 14,453 kgs and transportation made up 5,500 kgs of that, making it my highest category. I try and carpool whenever possible, but I definitely could do better about it. I also participate in a lot of clubs and sports, which increases the amount I drive. I could also do better about biking or walking whenever possible to places. I agree that it would be really awesome if everyone could carpool, and it would help the environment a lot!

Carpooling is a great way to lower your carbon footprint and it's easier for your family members. When we carpool we save gas and lessen the amount of carbon. Sharing a car ride is better for the environment and if you do carpool do it with friends to make helping the environment more fun. Any more thoughts?

Using local bus services as a transportation method is a helpful way to reduce carbon footprints. According to Jerry Shaw, "Electric cars produce fewer greenhouse gases. Although the cars can cause environmental damage when getting power from coal-producing plants, electric cars would dramatically reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses when powered by plants that don’t produce greenhouse gases." Electric cars are another good way to reduce your carbon footprint because they run on battery power and they use half as much fossil fuels than a traditional car.

http://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/article/631734

I agree with this carpooling is very good for the environment. It cuts down the number of cars and other vehicles that are on the road, which is good because the less amount the vehicles means that their are less amount of carbon and other gases from entering the air. It is also better for you because their is a lesser amount of air pollution.
http://www.1800234ride.com/top-5-benefits-of-carpooling

Carpooling can cut down our carbon footprints immensely! If you are driving with your mom to a Warriors game for example and your friend is also going in a separate car with his mom. You are both going to the same place and you are in two different cars... Why not just carpool and one car is being driven instead of two. That is less gas going into the atmosphere which is small but it makes a difference.

I agree with your statement that carpooling can save people time, money, and overall save the planet. Although, if someone doesn't have any carpools near where the live, they can take other sustainable forms of transportation like riding a train or, for shorter distances, riding a bike.

I agree with your statement; carpooling can help save the planet. The more people who carpool and use public transportation the less amount of carbon will be put in the air.

Something that students around where I live have been doing since the beginning of the school year is carpooling. It is great for the environment, creates an organized schedule, and brings people together.

This should be considered and publicized a lot more and the effects should be shown so people can visually see the positive results of leaving less carbon footprints

Carpooling is great. More people in less cars is an idea that has so many good aspects. Is cuts money on gas and cuts pollution. Although it may be slightly inconvenient, it is a good way to cut air pollution. There is more information as to why carpooling is good in this article. http://conservationmagazine.org/2014/09 … the-world/

Carpooling is a great way to be more efficient and emit  less carbon into the atmosphere. This creates a smaller carbon footprint and a more efficient way to travel, not to mention is it saves money and time. Thoughts?

Agreed, Izzy! Especially in rural places, it's always a good idea to carpool as much as possible because it can save *multiple* people money, gas, and time. And, you can make new friends as well as knowing you're helping the environment!! (:

I agree that carpooling is a great way to reduce our carbon footprint. Transportation has the second biggest carbon emission and it is causing Global Warming, climate change, rising sea levels, etc. This majorly threatens the environment and our society. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states that almost 10,000 grams of carbon dioxide is created per gallon of gasoline or diesel. There are 253 million vehicles in the United States alone. Carpooling can reduce the CO2 emissions greatly.
Other things that vehicle owners can do is buy fuel-efficient vehicles that travel the same distance but burn less fuel. Use electric cars that do not produce any carbon dioxide or simply cleaner fuels that produce fewer emissions. All of those things can reduce 80% of CO2 emissions which can help save the environment in the near future. All those are reasonable solutions that are worth considering because if we let our carbon footprint grow, it will be too late to make a difference.

The main thing that made my footprint so large was transportation. It takes me an hour to get to soccer and an hour back. I do this 4-5 times a week. I also go to cross country meets on the weekend which are normally over an hour away. I could cut down on my footprint by carpooling. It will reduce the number of cars on the road and pollution, but also minimize the amount of carbon dioxide released. For example, if I carpool with 3 other girls for soccer, then we would be releasing 3/4 less carbon dioxide into the air. That is a very significant difference. Additionally, traffic is a huge money and fuel waster. This money adds up to $60 billion per year in the 83 largest cities of the US. For the average person, if they carpooled just twice a week, 1,600 pounds of carbon dioxide would be kept out of the air. Or even multiply that by 100 people. If 100 people were to carpool twice a week, 2,376,000 pounds of carbon dioxide will be removed from the air! See how big a difference carpooling makes!
https://theecoguide.org/many-benefits-c … carpooling
https://www.gr eenlivingtips.com/articles/car-pooling-for-the-planet.html
http://www.conservationmagazine.org/201 … the-world/

Most people drive in cars. Almost all of those cars that are driven have just one person in them.
   If more people carpool, that means less cars are on the road. So how does this affect the environment? Less cars on the road means that there is less pollution in that area. This decreased amount of pollution leads to less carbon emission and a smaller carbon footprint.
      An increased amount of carpooling can also help to make the land use in a city more energy efficient. Parking lots take up a lot of space in cities, and almost every store has to have one so they have spaces for their customers to park. If there were more people who carpooled, the amount of parking spaces required in a parking lot would likely go down over time.
   Carpooling can also be a lot of fun if you do it with your friends, which can reduce your stress when you drive places. So next time you have a place to go, think about carpooling with your friends or family. It is good for the en vironment, and it is good for you!

https://www.buzzle.com/articles/why-is- … nment.html

Carpooling is a simple solution to this increasing issue.  There should be some sort of law in place that requires people to carpool, if at all possible.  When people carpool, this means that there are less cars on the road and therefore less vehicles polluting the area.  If even one major city implemented mandatory carpooling, the area's carbon footprint would drastically decrease.
Carpooling is also an extremely easy way to reduce the need for excessive wasting of land on parking lots, because if there are fewer cars on the road at once, there are fewer cars that will need parking spaces.
Lastly, carpooling can have some personal benefits that are not related to carbon footprints.  It would cause you to be in a car with family and friends, which is good for you.  Carpooling also reduces the amount you will pay for things such as gasoline and tolls.

Source: https://www.buzzle.com/articles/why-is- … nment.html

Yes!!!. Every little bit helps.

I definitely agree with you. I have been carpooling since elementary school. I have also noticed a big difference in my carbon footprint because of it. With less carbon dioxide released into the air less greenhouse gases as well. This is a very good way to start contributing to taking care of our environment.

I completely agree with you as I have tried to carpool more and more these days. I used to always want to ride on my own, but I realized that if I really want to help my environment, I need to sacrifice that time. I love your way of explaining this issue. This is truly a great contribution to our need to save our planet. However, I think that getting rid of cars altogether and transitioning to mass transit would be extremely beneficial to our environment.

I honestly don't think carpooling is practical. We need more efficient/electric cars instead of piling a bunch of people into a big SUV... We need affordable all electric cars that don't have any disadvantages over gas powered cars. The Prius is a definite start, but a lot of people choose not to get it because it has some serious disadvantages over a normal car. Your impact by carpooling certainly reduces your carbon footprint but over all, in the big picture... We need better cars... Not less cars...

I did cross country this year too,  we usually took a school bus to the meets.

Carpooling is super helpful and very effective on cutting down carbon emissions. If you do not have anyone to carpool with then using the metro bus would have the same effect. Then you are not adding anymore fossil fuels that wouldn't be on the earth already. It's like carpooling with strangers.

I think carpooling is a great way to reduce the amount of cars on the road and the pollution. Obviously electric cars are really expensive now a days according to the amount of income you have a year but if there was a way to reduce the prices of electric cars i don't think carpooling would be talked about as much and we wouldn't have to worry about our pollution.

Yes, carpooling is a great way to stop the transportation problem. Simply get many people that have to go the same place, or similar places, or even like a school bus thing and take everyone where they need to go. Whenever I order an uber or lyft, or really go anywhere, I'm never alone, we almost always fill the entire car instead of taking separate cars. Electric cars are better, but like Josh said, if the price of them can go down, then more people can get them and use them to lower the amount of pollution.

Throughout this thread I've seen comments about how carpooling isn't as efficient as electric cars. Theoretically this would be more efficient, but there's also the factor in which most electricity and electrical power is not ethically sourced. Small portions are made by windmills or other forms of power, but most is powered by oil anyway. So until ethically sourced electricity becomes more widespread, let's keep carpooling.

I agree, carpooling is the most effective way to stop the pollution from cars right now and I think more people should be doing it. Electric cars aren't bad and we can wait until better sources for electricity come, but it's not a bad idea to use them.

carpool is a very effective way to reduce your carbon footprint.  If people could carpool everywhere than so much would change. busses are also a good way to carpool

Also, carpooling is quite great because it can be a social event as well... ex: "Hey bud! wanna go and carpool this weekend?" this encourages us to carpool because it is also very fun!

I agree 100% carpooling is a great way to have lower amounts of carbon and other gases polluting the air, since there will be less cars on the road. Plus this means that if many people started carpooling, that area's carbon footprint would decrease.

i also agree because along with reducing carbon in the air it can also benefit us since there will be less traffic, my mom works as a staffing coordinator and uses carpool all the time for her employees to get to an event.

I agree that carpooling is an efficient way to lower the amount of carbon being released from automobiles.  I also agree that some sort of carpooling law may help with lowering our carbon footprint because there would be fewer cars on the roads. The carpooling could also help traffic, and by helping traffic people can get places faster in their cars; The faster the people get to their destinations, the fewer emissions and carbon is being released from the car.

I agree that carpooling is a easy and efficient way to reduce carbon. My family always try to carpool whether it is to school or soccer practice.

I completely agree how great is carpooling, also I think its fun its a way to meet new people its also a Great way keep less cars off the road, also carpool lane.

Carpooling is a great idea and it helps lower the carbon footprint alot. But I can't imagine making a law that would make this ilegal if you don't carpool.It would be insane to pass that law so suddenly. Also all these people would possibly driving to pick people up and driving to places that are further away if a law wasn't in place. I think carpooling is awesome, but I don't think they could pass a law about it.

Yeah, I agree. That is why Uber and Lyft are great ideas.

I agree that carpool is a great idea. I'm not sure if a law is the best possible way to make it happen.

The CO2 outputs of cars is very high, and for students like us, we all have to go to and from school 5 times a week. Because all of the students are going to the same spot, it would be very easy to carpool. If three kids carpooled together, it would take out the CO2 emissions of 2 cars. This could be a possible solution for bringing down CO2 levels, and it is very easy. It can be tricky planning the carpooling, but in the end, it could really help the environment.

We can reduce carbon by doing simple things like carpooling places. Many transportations that we use daily are very bad for environment and the amount of carbon we create. By carpooling we can reduce this amount of carbon a little by instead of driving one person in the car, we can carpool with other people or take busses and other public transportation. This makes it so we have less carbon being released at once. So just by getting a ride to school or work with a few other people can help your carbon footprint.

I agree with your post because I think that if everyone carpooled, or took the bus to school, we would be really making a big difference in our world. A study made by www.epa.gov showed that the average car emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide each day that it is driven. Think about how many metric tons of CO2 we would be reducing by all hopping in the same car to school. I carpool everyday to school, or I take the bus to school. Also when you are carpooling, you are not only maximizing the CO2 emissions from your car, you are also saving the other families cars from taking an extra trip and emitting more CO2. Carpooling or taking the bus might seem like it takes more effort to organize, or you would rather just get to school by yourself. But if you take a step back to look at the bigger picture of saving the environment that you live in, and the future generation will live in, carpooling is a small action, but it creates very rewarding change over time.  Do your part and make the change to carpooling to reduce the amount of CO2 you and your peers are emitting into the environment.

I agree, I think in general most people don't even realize how much driving contributes to the amount of carbon in the air. I think by carpooling or taking the bus could make a drastic change. Burning one gallon of gas creates 20 pounds of carbon dioxide and adding up the number of gallons burned ends up being a lot of carbon being emitted into the air, but by carpooling only a few days a week could reduce the amount of carbon in our atmosphere by a lot.

When each and every person drives individually to school in a car, this causes harm to the environment. Firstly, it pollutes the air. This can harm the animals as well as the people. Driving individually also causes the carbon footprint to increase. If one might carpool with friends every morning to go to work or school, it would help the environment tremendously.

I agree, If everyone were too carpool to school/ work we would reducing our carbon foot print by a lot. The more we carpool the more we help our environment. If everyone were to car pool then we would be reducing our carbon foot print by at least half. Another good thing people could do is to walk to places more. For some people that might be harder to do based on where they live. Personally I live very close to my school so I could reduce my carbon foot print by walking more.

I fully agree with this, because cars are one of the main sources of CO2 pollution. If people carpooled everywhere that would reduce the amount of cars on the road a lot. In return this would reduce the amount of CO2 emission massively.

I agree, but it is difficult to find people trustworthy enough to carpool. Driving a car is hard enough, and a car is a very large machine. I am not sure that I would always be comfortable putting my life in someone else's hands. But I do agree that there needs to be another solution for limiting air pollution.

I agree, because cars can produce a lot of greenhouse gasses just from a short run. If everyone in the world drove a car at once it would be horrible for the environment. But when you carpool you are including a possible 6 car situation to just one car.

I completely agree that carpooling is a more sustainable idea. So many people drive individually to the same place every day, work, school, sports practices, everything you can think of. On www.cartalk.com it shows the average car emits about six tons of carbon dioxide every year, so if we just carpooled with two people in a car we could cut that amount of Co2 in half. This doesn't work out the problem of global warming  but it definitely helps the cause.

By agreeing with this statement, carpooling is one of the many ways one can reduce their carbon footprint regarding transportation. Whether it be to work or school, by creating a schedule, individuals can ride with other people rather than alone which can save money on gas and help the environment by emitting less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This simple action helps reduce the number of pollutants in the air by sharing a car with others, which largely affects animals and humans, and by not driving individually, this provides a much more sustainable action to simply help our world-wide problem of global warming.

I can also come to the consensus that carpooling would be an adequate solution to aid in the lessening of carbon is a tactic that can be employed in order to reduce the amount of carbon output. It is not a foolproof plan and will need to coalesce with other methods as well in order to function in the manner intended, but more carpooling would definitely help the current issue of global warming along with the issue of smog and other toxins that appear in our atmosphere.

I agree completely. Carpooling with other students and parents will be a good deed for carbon emissions, as it will take cars from the road and reduce emissions and air pollution by a lot.

Carpooling is a great solution, but an even better solution would be public transportation. It may be uncomfortable and awkward for you to take public transportation, and you probably won't like it, but carbon emmissions are constantly increasing. We need to take dramatic action to stop the increase of CO2 emissions. Also if you take the bus, it would also be easier for your parents as they don't have to drive you to school, so theres some more incentive. Doing this simple thing like taking the bus/BART to school would have such a large impact on society, dramatically decreasing CO2 emissions helping the environment.

I think more people should carpool more so there are less cars on the road. This would cause less carbon dioxide emissions, which would lower our carbon footprint.

I agree that carpooling has a great impact on our carbon emission.  I believe this because based on my personal carbon footprint from the calculator, I discovered that one of the biggest contributors to my carbon emissions is transportation. This is because we now are so dependent on getting around with our cars that use gas, except electric cars, which is proven to be one of the worst aspects of global warming. Again, I agree that carpooling is a great idea because we don't have to use so many cars, and I also think taking the bus and public transportation is a viable option towards trying to prevent climate change.

I also agree. Carpooling will lower everyone's carbon footprint and there will be less gasses polluting the air. It keeps the air, water, and land cleaner. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. On average, sharing a ride with one person to work and back will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.72 kilograms.

I think a super easy way to be more efficient and energy-efficient is to carpool with friends or family members going to school or practice. There are so many benefits to carpooling other than saving energy and gas emissions too. If everyone carpooled there would be substantially more parking spaces, you can save money on gas, and go through the carpool lane to get to your destination quicker.

It is really important to cut down on the number of cars on the road. Taking public transportation is a large part of that. Taking the bus to and from school allows us to cut down on our carbon footprint. Also carpooling to sports allows us to reduce our carbon footprint as well.

I believe that it is important to decrease the number of cars on the road. Have your kid learn at an early age that public transportation, such as Bart or bus is good. Make sure they're not scared either. But carpooling is a good way to decrease cars. Maybe make it a medium or large carpool.

Yeah, I agree. I think more people should start carpooling because a lot of people live in the same area. Carpooling is also a very effective and simple way to save the Earth.

Yes, your opinion is really great and it is easy to complete. Traffic produce a lot pollution of carbon dioxide and there is a large amount of cars everyday on the streets. If people do more carpool or just taking the bus, the carbon dioxide will decrease immediately.  Due to the analysis article "Benefits of Carpooling", people can  save money and don't even need to waste their time to park their car every times.

I agree I think carpooling is one of the easier and simple ways to make the earth healthier. Carpooling with large or even small groups to school and different events mean fewer cars on the road and less fuel and greenhouse gas emissions in the air making for a healthier earth. It's time for people to start thinking about small ways to improve the earth because the condition of the environment is only becoming worse and worse.

In an article call "How Carpooling Will Save the World" https://www.conservationmagazine.org/20 … he-world/, it states that carpooling does reudce the number of cars on the road, but it doesn't reduce the amount of miles driven. For the 83 largest urban areas in the United States, traffic results in a waste of time and fuel valued at some $60 billion dollars, which means that billions od dolars of gas are being wasted dueing traffic. This implies that the increase of crabon increases mainly because traffic prevents people from getting places using a shorter route; more gas is being released with no movement. This is where carpooling comes it. If one car is in traffic instead of fiev cars, it means less  traffic an dless carbon burned. By carpooling, you prevent more the passanger's cars from being stcuck in traffic, too.

I agree! If more carpooling was done, then we could significantly cut down the amount of cars, as well as CO2 emission. Carpooling, as well as taking public transportation, would most certainly help lower the amount of CO2.

Perhaps, students could organize large carpools, consisting of 3-4 students each. If large carpools were made, less CO2 would be emitted and parents would feel more safe. Many parents worry about public transportation, as there have been a few dangerous encounters while on them. As such, trying to keep our buses and trains more safe might encourage more parents to let their child use them, aiding in lessening the CO2 in the air along with carpooling.

After reading the article "How Carpooling Will Save the World", https://www.conservationmagazine.org/20 … he-world/, I have no choice but to agree with you. Adding on to what you said, the site also states that vehicular traffic contributes to a large proportion of deaths by air pollution. So it's not that you're driving less (because you're not), the problem is the amount of CO2 released when the car is at a standstill. To combat this the site proposes the idea of carpooling. This does mean a lack of privacy for the passengers but the Earth comes first. I'm not sure if this could work practically, but the ultimate solution would be to have every street legal car be a taxi, and force people that are going in the same direction to take the same taxi. This way, there are less round trips and carpooling would be implemented as well.

I agree with you. Another way to help lower the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is taking public transportation. While I was looking into statistics about public transportation I stumbled upon https://www.transit.dot.gov/regulations … ansit-role where it states that transportation accounts for 29% of the green house gas emissions in the US. If we all take public transportation or carpool we would definitely see that number increase. So if you have fellow students that live nearby you should try and contact them about setting up a carpool to go to school, or if there a bus stop or bart station between home and the place that you would like to go take the public transportation. If we all put more of an effort into saving the environment we would see the changes.

Carpooling can decrease the amount of carbon released. Many people who live close to each other take their own car when going places instead of carpooling. By carpooling, we can reduce our transport carbon footprint by half or more.

Do you feel that by having an organized carpool system that we can all reduce carbon dioxide emissions exponentially? If not than how could we better do this?

Thank you for your insights, I also believe that having an organized carpool system would help many people use less gas and CO2 output from cars, and give off less of a carbon footprint. Also, would it be helpful if there were more electric cars which would basically bus kids around, this would also help by reducing the number of fossil fuels being used and mined?

Carpooling is a very effective way to save time, Co2 emission, and the atmosphere. according to cartalk.com, the average car is responsible for emitting about 6 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year. This is a big problem and transportation contributes a large portion to the average persons carbon footprint per year.  I think that all this co2  emission to the atmosphere by car can be greatly reduced if more people start carpooling. I notice that many people that could potentially carpool to sports practices school, and extracurricular activities, drive there separately causing a lot more co2 to the atmosphere. I encourage more people to carpool when possible and contribute to stopping climate change.

Carpooling is a very effective way to save time, Co2 emission, and the atmosphere. according to cartalk.com, the average car is responsible for emitting about 6 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year. This is a big problem and transportation contributes a large portion to the average persons carbon footprint per year.  I think that all this co2  emission to the atmosphere by car can be greatly reduced if more people start carpooling. I notice that many people that could potentially carpool to sports practices school, and extracurricular activities, drive there separately causing a lot more co2 to the atmosphere. I encourage more people to carpool when possible and contribute to stopping climate change.

I think Carpooling is an amazing way for multiple people to lower their own carbon footprint. As many of you know, a lot of cars produce a lot of Co2, so if I am able to reduce my own footprint along with some of my friends I think that is a win. Cars emit 6-8 tons of Co2 each year and carpooling is an amazing way to start cutting out unnecessary carbon emission. My friends and I carpool to school every morning and often on the weekends too which helps with all of our emission of carbon!

I agree with you completely I believe that if we use non fossil fuel powered cars and had an organized carpool system which used only electric cars that we could vastly reduce our own carbon footprints.

Can you think of any other ways that we could improve this idealized low carbon emission carpool system?

Cars are a major pollution contributor, and this isn't good for our environment. Cars emit a range of gases and solid matter, and this can result in global warming, harming not only the Earth but human health. To decrease the pollution put in the air that's causing harm is carpooling with another or multiple people. This limits the carbon emissions releasing into the atmosphere, saves time, and it's helping the Earth. Along with this, it also reduces all the costs you were to pay on gas, or towards new roads, etc. Fewer cars driving results in less Greenhouse Gas emissions, improving air quality. So encouraging carpooling would help the Earth in many ways.

I agree that carpooling is a very good way to lower carbon footprints and to lower the carbon dioxide emissions that escape into the atmosphere. The release of CO2 is a very hard situation that causes climate change, which is why I agree that using less cars, or carpooling is an efficient way to slow down climate change.
Who knows how much worse climate change can get. However if we all commit to things such as carpool, then it will help to slow down the process. It is said that cars release around 6 tons of carbon dioxide each year. Imagine if everybody got into this and started more carpools. The numbers would drop making our atmosphere healthier.

I agree that carpooling is a better way to lower carbon footprints and to lower the carbon dioxide emissions because there will be less cars driving and that would be a lot better and it would slow down climate change

yea, thats true

I agree. Not only does it help lower carbon footprints but it is also more fun for us to spend time whit others while doing things that can take up a lot of time out  of our daily life.

Cars and types of transportation like trains and buses, all release a LOT of CO2. I agree that carpooling is a very good way to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere as carpooling means there are less cars involved and therefore less CO2 being put into the atmosphere.

Carpooling is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. If everyday you drove to school with a friend or more, carbon emissions will be reduced and you aren’t paying a cent

In my opinion carpooling is really usefull for our own needs and by doing that we are also keeping our carboon footprint smaller. When I was younger I was carpooling with my neighbour every single day and I can say it was really fun for me. These days many people don't comunicate very often because of there busy lifes, especially not while they are traveling from point A to point B completely alone. When you are carpooling you actually have someone to talk to and hang around and by doing that you are actually helping the environment so it's a win-win situation.

Carpooling and/or environmentally conscious transportation could significantly benefit more urbanized, oil based superpowers/countries such as Saudi Arabia, the U.S. etc. Especially considering that the the total emissions for S.A. are some of the highest on the planet (50,000 kg per capita on average). That’s not even mentioning more that half of the emissions are from transportation.

I think that carpooling is a very efficient way to decrease our carbon footprints. You not only make friends through carpooling but you also help keep the environment healthy.

I totally agree because not only does carpooling help decrease the carbon footprint but it will actually make travel way more efficient. If we carpool with our friends from point a to point b less cars will be used which means less cars will be on the road and there will be less traffic!

I 100% agree with that because carpooling is one of the easiest ways to reduce your carbon footprint. You don't need to make any significant changes to your lifestyle and it is good for the environment. If a great population started carpooling, it could get us a little step forward to taking care of the planet

I also believe that carpooling is a proficient way to reduce one's carbon footprint. It is an easy action to take and is beneficial to those involved in a multitude of ways. There is no real downside to carpooling with someone especially when your destination is the same as someone else's.

I definitely agree that everyone should try to make carbon footprints smaller. When I was young, I used to carpool with my best friend to school every single day. Although I did not know it, my best friend and I saved the environment in a way. I agree that people should carpool more often, not only to save the environment but also to have more conversation with another. Overall, I totally agree with all the points that you make. By carpooling, I can reduce carbon amounts by 1481.17 grams per ten minutes.

Today, the climate change and environmental disasters have been boiled down to politics and alignments within politics. Regardless of your political opinions, it's necessary that both politicians and supporters understand that this is bigger than any dividing lines. We _ALL_  have to work together to fix this problem and we can't (shouldn't) let these divisions spread to something like the condition of the climate.

I think that we need to take climate change out of the politicians hands and start to try and deal with some of it on our own. Like if we all went out and bought an electric car that’s already a step forward. What we really need to do is just take action and not sit and wait for Washington to make a decision because if we do that by the time they make a decision our planet will already be dead.

I agree with these observations but we also need to make these points well known to other people. So many people don't even know what is happening in our climate. Before we can move on. People need to know the implications of their actions.

I agree with your statement about working together to fix the problem of climate change. However, the border separating the truth of climate change and politicians in power is ignorance (I know this is getting subjective now). As citizens, we must do our part to lower our carbon footprint individually, however, we cannot expect everyone to pitch in as one cannot really change someone's belief in climate change (or beliefs at all). It would be amazing to get everyone to change their ways to eradicate climate change, but the sad truth is, some people fail to recognize climate change through sheer ignorance, or just not knowing at all.

It's funny when I think about bottled water. I live in a city where clean, safe tap water is available in almost all public settings and at home. Nonetheless, people still choose to buy bottled water. I understand that not all cities have tap water facilities installed and I feel privileged that my city does, yet there still are people making choices in buying packages after packages of bottled water. Ironic, eh? Furthermore, we see companies like Nestle exploiting water sources, packaging bottled water and selling it off for billions they barely paid much for. Taking more into consideration that manufacturing and exporting these plastic bottles also adds to carbon emissions. Do we really want to funnel our finances into making these environment destructors or installing/utilizing fresh, clean and free tap water facilities?

I completely agree. I too live in a city with good tap water, and it would honestly be a huge waste of money to go out of my way to buy bottled water. Some people live in places where the tap water is bad for you, and that is the only real reason you should be consistently buying bottled water. Tap water averages at about $2.10 per CCF. In case you're wondering, a CCF is equivalent to 748 gallons and 4,787 bottles. If you think about this, with the money to buy 2  bottles of water, you can have 4,787 bottles worth of tap water. Assuming a bottle costs you $1, the price is 2,279 times the cost of having the same amount of water, but tap. Also, as mentioned above, companies export water very far distances in big trucks, and even planes and ships, causing lots of greenhouse gasses to be released.
https://20somethingfinance.com/bottled- … tap-water/

I agree, I also live in a city where the tap water is clean. But people still buy bottled water. I think people do this because are scared that unhealthy things are in the tap water. Which makes those people think the only safe option is bottled water. Also if people used tap water and reusable bottles we would use less plastic. Which would reduce our carbon footprint.

I agree that we should avoid buying bottled water. According to sciencealert.com, "For the vast majority of Americans, a glass from the tap and a glass from the bottle are virtually identical as far as their health and nutritional quality are concerned. In some cases, publicly-sourced tap may actually be safer since it is usually tested more frequently." Therefore, there is no valid reason to buy bottled water unless you don't live in a place with healthy tap water. Someone once told me that the water bottle industry is a scam because minerals are added that can actually make people thirstier, so they will be buying more bottles and using more plastic. This gives companies like Arrowhead, Dasani, and Aquafina more money. Consistently using a water bottle is a small step you can take to reduce your yearly carbon footprint.

I live in a place where most bottled water companies get there water yet I still see so many people choosing to buy bottled water that is up to 2 dollars. In some places where peoples tap water is dirty you can buy a water bottle with a filter in side. This would not only be cheaper overall than buying bottled water it would also be a lot more environmentally friendly.

drinking bottled water too much can damage your teeth

i dont agree with you because not all wate r is clean but if we stop trashing it it will be clean so its not better for water bottles becuse people throw it on the floor and dont pick it up and it goes in the sea or ocean and it killes sEA ANIMALS WITH  IS SAD

The Earth's population is glowing at an astounding 1.07% per year. With that being said, Earth's natural resources are also depleting with the growing population. We must reserve our nonrenewable resources in order to continue living and improving ways of life. Using energy sources such as coal and oil are not good for the environment, because they are nonrenewable and create serious air pollution issues. Hydroelectric and wind power create less pollution and are easily accessible. What are other forms of energy that could protect our environment and fuel our growing population?

Another source of energy is from the sun! Alternatives to energy sources from oils and coal are solar panels! Solar panels are a source of clean energy that does not produce any greenhouse gasses. According to Leanna Garfield at Science Alert, "the global population could be 33 percent larger in 35 years than it is today". This continuous growth of the population and the need for more energy creates a problem that can be helped by harnessing the energy from the sun through solar panels.
Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/the-world- … port-finds

Overpopulation is major issue that I too believe is looked past too often. Like Alden stated, we need to find more alternatives to gas and coal energy to keep up with the growing energy consumption of our growing population. While we are moving to some newer energy alternatives such as wind, water, and solar energy, they are not nearly as prominent as they should be. I believe that this is due to people not wanting to change their lifestyle to adjust to new energy sources. One example of this is the growing number of nuclear plants closing down. Even though nuclear energy is incredibly efficient and much safer than gas plants, people don't like "nuclear" being the source of their energy because it is associated with terrible events. We need to accept change to become more efficient as a race.

I agree with all the points you mentioned and It is an issue that people don't take into attention as much as they need to. Our world is truly depleting it's natural resources and I read an article about it on National Geographic where it discussed different forms of energy we could use to protect our environment. One of these was using solar panels for electricity. They explained that these are very environmentally friendly and that they use our abundant natural resources and they don't depend on ones that are depleting.

Ecology is an important thing in our lives. First of all ecology is the relationship between nature and human. I beleave that if everyone doesnt care about the envronment, or planet wont be suitable for living. Its seems the greatest harm is caused by cars releasing fumes during their use. These fumes pollutes the air. Nowadays electric cars have been invented, but dont have been invented , but dont have such a great popularity among residents yet. If everyone turned to these cars, it would be helpful to our environment.

I completely agree with this statement. Without nature our human population wouldn't be able to survive and I think that most people take this for granted. They don't realize that without the amazing ecosystem around us they wouldn't have some of their favorite foods: pizza, ice cream, cake, burgers, etc. Basically all of the food we eat come from the environment around us. revolving back around to the statement about electric cars, these would be so much better for our environment but they are also not totally accessible to a lot of people. They are very expensive and a lot of people do not have the money to buy them. I think that if car companies figured out a way to make electric cars cheaper and more accessible for the larger population and still be eco-friendly. Thank you for bringing this idea into the light more because some people don't understand the immediate relation that humans have to the environment and that without the environment we wouldn't have the world that we live in.