I used to go through at least 6 water bottles a day or more because of athletics. I have started using a reusable water bottle and not only does it help the environment and waste less plastic, but I have also realized how much money my family has saved. i think little actions taken by people can greatly help the environment

After I took the carbon footprint challenge, I learned that my food, purchases and home footprints were low but that my transportation footprint was extrodanarily high. I realized this was because I go on a lot of trips over the summer and visit family that live far away. One way I have tried to decrease my carbon footprint is by having a car that gets better milage and therefore will use less gas. I think that the challenge really helped me realize how much impact each person has on the global carbon footprint and how important it is that we attempt to reduce it as much as possible

Hi! My name is Aubrey, and I am from the USA. After calculating my carbon footprint, I realized that the type of lightbulb I used had a major contribution to my overall footprint. After I discussed this with my mom, we compared the compact fluorescent lights to the incandescent light bulbs, and we noticed a large difference. Although it is kinder to the environment to use the compact fluorescent lights, they are much dimmer, and change brightness after a few minutes. They produce a yellow-ish light compared to a white light. This changes the overall mood of the room, and makes objects appear dreary. As we enter the hibernal months, my mom refuses to change all of our bulbs to compact fluorescent because she does not want the home to be drab and depressed. She was willing to change a few, though, which is a big step. I believe that every little thing we do to help our earth will contribute to an overall better society!

As I calculated my carbon footprint, I noticed that my diet actually contributed most to my carbon footprint. Each week, I eat at least seven non-vegetarian meals and only on rare occasions do I eat a vegan meal. Although this is a simple behavior to change, I am not very willing to change my diet because it has been a habit of mine for my whole life. It really isn’t an easy thing to change. In order to reduce my carbon footprint, I could make an effort to eat more vegetarian meals. I could even introduce my family to some vegetarian alternatives.

Shane from CA, USA used 3914kg in transportation. 2553kg in home energy. 4796kg in food. Lastly 895 kg in purchases. I thought my food carbon was high.

As the world’s population grows, we will need to produce more food to prevent hunger. The good news is that we have techniques that can both provide more food and lower the world’s carbon footprint. Scientists and farmers have developed farming techniques that would result in a “triple win”; more crops would be produced, they would be more resistant to drought and other extremes, and the crops would release less carbon dioxide into the air.

In order to help offset global warming, farmers have developed a way to grow crops that will not release much carbon dioxide. They do this by using fertilizers with a high amount of organic material. This traps carbon in the soil, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

The organic content of the soil also helps in making the crops more resistant to droughts and erosion. When more organic matter is introduced into a fertilizer, that fertilizer’s water carrying capacity increases. This gives the crops a store of water in case of drought, and it also helps to prevent erosion.

Scientists have also developed agricultural techniques that produce a higher yield of crops than before. Farmers can carefully monitor their soil’s fertility and nutrient levels and can adjust them as needed. Having nutritionally sound fertilizer can reduce the need to constantly replace it, and because the crops will be exposed to all the nutrients they need, more crops will grow.

As scientists have proven with the “triple win” technique, it is possible to produce large quantities of strong crops while still reducing our carbon footprint. If more countries implement this technique, we could take a huge step toward ending world hunger in an eco-friendly way.

When I calculated my carbon footprint, I saw that although I recycle, the amount of trash my family throws away a week still increases my carbon footprint by a lot. A reasonable way to change that would be to try and start a compost in my house. My cousins have one and they told me that it is a really easy thing to change about your life style that can really help the environment. It doesn’t take too much effort and it can have many advantages to your life. It saves you money,reduces your carbon footprint by reducing pollution and toxins in the environment, and can act as a fertilizer for your backyard. Starting a compost in your house is an easy and efficient way to really lower your carbon footprint and is a good starting point for taking action in trying to save the environment. I attached a link that gives you an easy explanation of how to start a compost in your own home.

In our day to day lives, we all consume products that have the potential to be reused or re-purposed. Often times, we don’t even consider the possibilities of our used materials. Although simply throwing away or recycling something is usually easiest, it deters from the health of the environment.. After all, everything that we “throw away” may vanish from our sight but remains a part of the Earth forever. To reuse and re-purpose items will be beneficiary to the environment, and will help reduce each individual’s carbon footprint. We all can reuse things such as plastic, refilling our water bottles several times before disposing of them. In addition, we also can re-purpose these items, such as using a jar of peanut butter to gather change. These small efforts may seem too minute to make a difference, but collectively can make a positive impact on our environment and help to preserve our planet.

I personally use too many water bottles a day. I drink three to six bottles a day and usually reuse the bottles the next day. Even though I drink so much water, I reuse them in order to save carbon emissions. Although it is not as resourceful as using a reusable bottle everyday, it is still something. Quite honestly, I do not use a reusable bottle because it is much more convenient to use plastic water bottles. People (including me) need to put reducing carbon emissions before convenience.

Hello I am Alex. While completing my family footprint, I found that we use 5158 kg of Carbon on average in 1 year, almost 2000 kg over the average limit. I was surprised by this since I live in a family of only 3 people, and realized that we have to take measures to reduce this amount. I think the most effective way for us to do this is to lower the amount of heat we use each year from our electric heater system. This consumed the most amount of Carbon, and by not using as much I would’ve reduced my total to around 4000 kg. I also found that we use the air conditioner a lot during the summer months, so we will try to cut back on using that as well to reduce our Carbon consumption by even less, which will contribute to a more environmentally friendly community.