I know I, like most girls in the United States, tend to take longer showers. These long showers actually produce much larger amounts of carbon than you would expect. According to the Forest Preserves of Champaign County just a daily eight minute shower emits 1,368 pounds of carbon annually. Personally I end up taking 15 or more minute showers daily, which impacted my personal carbon footprint significantly. In fact, next to my traveling my showers produced the most carbon annually. But the real question is do we really need to take long showers, or are they just a want. I have decided to take shorter showers to help improve my total carbon footprint, because I have realized this is just an instance of wanting something that isn't really needed, and will only hurt the environment.

Long showers are definitely not a daily necessity. If you truly enjoy taking a longer shower, it would be more reasonable to do something unnecessary like this once a week or less. Also, while cold showers save energy, they are fairly unpleasant for most people, so maybe a shorter, lukewarm shower is the best way to get started on conserving energy related to showers.

I agree that long showers aren't a necessity but sometimes they are nice. I don't think is great for you carbon footprint though.  They probably produce a lot of carbon. My total footprint was 11,083 and my house carbon footprint was 1,952. I probably could take shorter showers and work on conserving electricity. I also need to work on the food portion. It is kind of hard because I have 5 people in my family. My region total footprint was 15,918. I was surprised by this.