Is having the latest technology a want or a need?
How often do you get a new cel phone or mp3 player? Did you really need a new model? Do you consider the environmental impact of these purchases? If you are addicted, how can you break your addiction?
Wants or Needs? >
Cars
Many people in the US own cars and use these cars on a daily basis, but, cars emit large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. In the US, cars make up a substantial amount of the overall CO2 emissions. According to an article by "Union of Concerned Scientists," cars and trucks make up around 20% of all the US carbon emissions. Some things that we can do to cut down on CO2 emissions from cars are taking public transportation or just biking or walking when possible instead of taking a car.
This is a great point. Switching up our transportation routine is one way we can limit our CO2 emissions. At our school, Bishop O'Dowd, there are all kinds of more eco-friendly ways to get to school. For example, I carpool to school every morning. This uses less vehicles and gives off less CO2. I also take the bus home every other day, which takes many students to and from campus every day. It may be a larger vehicle than a car, but it carries so many students that it is more environmentally efficient than cars. Our school also has a BART system set up. The commuter trains bring students from their local station to one near the O'Dowd campus. From there, a set of yellow school buses bring the students to school. These different types of carpooling help cut out individual cars and improve our air quality.
That is a really good point because all that gas in CO2 is going up in the air and that causes more and more smoke in the earth. A better way to avoid that is electric cars but some people don't have that so I also think that it is a good idea to bike, walk, or use public transportation to get where you need to go.
I agree with this concept. Many people often neglect the advantage of public transportation. It is significantly healthier for our environment to, on shorter trips, walk or bike instead of driving. If more people accumulated the energy to walk or bike more from shorter to medium distances, our CO2 levels would decrease, so would our dependency on cars. Even if public transportation is not a regular, carpooling is always a better option.