If you're like me, all you want to do after a long day of school is sit down and watch television, sometimes for hours. And, unfortunately for our electricity bill, I like to turn on lots of lights at night to make sure strangers know there is someone home. However, I know this is not the best approach whatsoever, and know that I must begin to change my habits to begin reducing my carbon footprint.

Nonetheless, it is not just me who has to change her habits, but my entire family. Our house has a lawn that is watered more than it probably needs to be, and we have many unnecessary lights turned on. Although my family tries to buy local and organic foods, and never runs the dishwasher or washing machine until full, I think that my family still has a lot of work to do in order to improve our habits. I believe that involving my family in reducing our home carbon footprint will make a huge impact, and I am very willing to include my parents in being more environmentally-friendly.

This sounds a lot like me as I usually like to leave the lights on especially at night because I am not really fond of the dark. It is a fear of mine that has become an issue for me as I realize how much I am affecting my carbon footprint with this excessive amount of light. Right now as I am commenting on your post I am in a room with 14 light bulbs that are currently on. I read in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that 39% of the total energy consumer in American is used for electricity. This is one factor that is affecting my excessive carbon footprint. Luckily, my family has installed solar panels on the roof of our house to contribute to the amount of electrictiy we used. However, I am striving to rise above my fears and begin turning off more lights. I plan to start this now as I turn off 10 our of the 14 lights that are surrounding me.

I agree with both of you and think that this is a very important point that people need to be aware of. I think that this website is extremely important for people to see how their carbon footprint can greatly impact our world. With only doing simple things every day you can lower the amount of carbon you put off in to the world. Simple things like: turning off the lights when you leave a room, opening your windows instead of turning on the A.C., turning off the faucet when you aren't using it, recycling or reusing things instead of throwing them away, and making sure that the television is fully off when you are done wit it. Watching and making sure that you are being economically friendly every day, by doing these small things, is a small step in the right direction.

Before finding out my carbon footprint was so large, I falsely assumed that my family was doing a good job of keeping our carbon dioxide emissions low. Like you Alyssa, we don't use the dishwasher or laundry until it was completely full, and we compost our food scraps, recycle, and car-pool all the time. I didn't realize how much CO2 was being released by using all of our electricity we used though. Sophia, I think it's great that your family has taken the time to install solar panels on your house. Solar panels can cut a home's CO2 emissions by half, as I read on this website (http://www.conergy.us/residential-solar/benefits/). I'll definitely have to talk to my mom about investing in some solar panels.

Like you, my family loves to keep the lights on in our home. My parents leave the lights on when we go out to make sure strangers think someone is home. People don't think that changing their own lifestyles to lower their carbon footprint will really affect the environment. I too have been guilty of thinking this way. However, what people don't understand is that if they won't try to lower their own footprint, who will? Everybody has to play a part in helping the environment to really stop this climate change.

That's like what my family does and I totally understand. In reality everyone should change something if not to help themselves to help the enviroment