Now that we see what our collective and personal impact is on the planet, let's think big!
What big and bold ideas do you have for reducing personal, community, country and even global carbon footprints?
Use this space to develop and discuss your big ideas! Who knows- maybe one of these ideas can be the next key solution to the global climate challenge!
Think Big >
World Wide
Transportation accounted for 64% of my carbon footprint. This was primarily due to my multiple overseas plane trips. Originally, I was not aware of the impact of my travels, but by calculating my carbon footprint I was shown how my actions can affect the environment. On domestic flights, 316 gm of carbon dioxide is produced per passenger-kilometer. On a flight from New York to Florida that would be 347,600 gm for one person. There should be more efficient fuel options for aviation and travel. Instead of flying from one state to another, drive or take a bus. This would drastically reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced from air travel.
In my previous post, I mentioned the damaging effects of air transport. Therefore, I am able to consider the example mentioned by you at the end an essential tip for all the forum users. Land transport pollutes less, so I could specify, in addition, *the electric train* and *the electric cars*. I am part of the category of people who don't travel much, which is also observable in my results. How do you get 64% of your carbon footprint just by traveling?
I live in the southern part of the United States. This means that to travel to other parts of the country I must drive very long distances or fly. My parents prefer flying because we would have to drive for multiple days. In addition, I flew to and from Europe 4 times. Each trip would have been approximately 5,400 miles, which adds up over many flights. My other categories such as food and home were close to my regional average, but it was the many flights that set it over.
We are close to reaching the point of no turning back with our carbon footprint. We need to keep our footprint to a reasonable amount so that we can keep our oceans healthy, and many more things. We need to take a big step, to reduce our carbon footprint. I think we should make all people that own a house put in enough solar panels to power their entire house. Also, we should collect rainwater from the gutters of our houses, and naturally filter them ourselves, so we don’t have to have water treatment plants.