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 >
Sustainable Transportation
Among the issues discussed when talking about carbon emissions, I would argue that travel and commute has the largest effect. Part of this is that it is such a necessity, making it so hard to reduce. But something that surprised me more was air travel. It seems like it would have relatively low emissions, as it doesn't have starts and stops, isn't affected by traffic, and is like a mega carpool with tens, if not hundreds of people. However, in practice, emissions are extremely high in aviation. Air travel alone produced an estimated 900 million metric tons of CO2 in 2018, showing that the huge demand vastly outweighs the minor emissions cuts.
I also would argue that transportation is one of the leading factors in carbon emissions. As transportation has become such an essential part of our society, it is difficult to limit or reduce it. However, I speculate people have the ability to walk places way more than they are doing now. Walking place to place can become tiresome and annoying, for I admit that if I am given the option to either walk or take a car somewhere within walking distance, I would choose the car. This proves that our society has become conditioned to taking the easy way out, and it has cost us the health of our Earth. Not to mention, physical activity and being outside raises mental health and improves memory/cognitive abilities. Therefore, I encourage everyone, myself included, to make this difficult change and together we will be on the road to a healthier Earth and a happier body.
I agree that transportation plays a key role in carbon emissions. Transportation creates almost one-third of greenhouse gas emissions and the necessity of changing how we, as people on the earth, commute is obvious. Although it may seem irrelevant, one way we can reduce transportation and its daunting effect on the earth is through purchasing food and goods locally. Goods from local businesses are transported significantly fewer miles than goods from a big supermarket or corporation that flies and ships their products from all around the world. Stopping worldwide product shipments by buying locally can significantly reduce greenhouse gas and carbon emissions.