The biggest part of my carbon footprint is the food part, mostly because I eat a lot of meat. It is not good, but I do it anyway…
Does someone have a piece of advice for me to improve this? Because I really do not want it to be “of the table”…

I have two things that is “off the table” for me. First up is my laptop. i use it in school for different projects and hand-ins, and much of our school’s subject- and test information requires a computer to read. Second is my video games. They make up a lot of my free time, so I don’t want to give them up. Also, they’re fun.

One thing that is “off the table” for me is my laptop. I am required to use it at my school and I also use it for almost all of my homework and for watching TV. There are things that I can do to minimize my carbon footprint from my laptop. For starters, I have started unplugging my laptop when it is fully charged and using its extra battery to my advantage. Also, I haven’t been watching as much TV on it. Another thing that is “off the table” for me is traveling. My family lives all over the U.S. They live all the way from Washington to Florida. Even though we all live so far apart, we all love to visit eachother. Usually, when ever we go to visit someone who lives more than seven hours away we hop on a plane and fly there, but recently, I learned that flying is not very eco-friendly. This is not something that has stopped us from visiting our family, but it has made us think about planning our trips in the best, most eco-friendly way as possible.

The one thing that is defiantly “off the table” for me is my laptop. Pandora is also a bit “off the table” too, but that is usually on my laptop or on the DVD player. I use my laptop all the time. My school requires that we have one, so I am on it during school, and at night. I use my laptop for everything too; home work, games, TV, and music. Since, I am on it all the time I also have to charge it constantly, which is not very good for the environment. I know I can cut out some of the things I use my computer for, but not much. I use my computer a lot for school work. There are ways that I can conserve energy on my computer. Below are a few ways on how to conserve energy when using a computer.

I have three things that are definitely “off the table”: my laptop, travel, and my Ipod. My laptop is required for school, so I have to use it for almost everything. The good thing about that is that we use less paper because our homework can be done and submitted on the computer, we can take notes in class on the computer, instead of flyers, posters, etc. we just e-mail notifications and advertisements for upcoming events in our school. Also, our laptops have two batteries so they last all day and we don’t have to charge them until the end of the day. As for traveling, all of my family lives far away, my mom’s side in Puerto Rico, and my dad’s side in New Jersey. I’m sorry that planes release so much carbon, but I can’t give up seeing my family. I also love to see the rest of the world, and I could never give that up either. However, to help reduce my carbon footprint in this category, since I can’t give it up, there are eco-friendly airlines. Below is a website that has the top 5 most eco-friendly airlines. So next time you travel, you should check those out! And finally, last but not least, something that is “off the table” is my Ipod. I know this sounds very trivial, but I love music and my Ipod is kind of a big part of my life. I actually want to minor in music (for piano) when I am in college, so I’m pretty serious about it. I know there are other ways to listen to music, but with my Ipod it’s just so perfect and so convenient. I can buy music whenever I want, and take my Ipod everywhere so I can listen to it whenever I want. You can’t do this with a CD Player. Anyway, that’s all I have that is definitely “off the table”. So if you are like me and you want to reduce your carbon footprint but traveling is “off the table,” check out these airlines so next time you can travel the (somewhat) eco-friendly way!

Something that is definitley off the table for me is my laptop. This is partly because I simply like to use my laptop at home, but it is mostly because we are required to have it for school. We use our laptops to take notes, do wroksheets, look at the same powerpoints the teachers use in class, and about a million other things every day. On average, I use my laptop about 8 - 9 hours a day. At first, I thought this was bad, but then I realized that using my laptop so much is actaully probably better for the environment because it majorly reduces the amount of paper I use. The only things I really ever use paper for now are tests, quizzes, and occassionally a worksheet. Therefore, I probably shouldn’t use my laptop so much when I’m at home and I’m just on facebook or something, but at school, it’s actually more environmentally friendly to use my laptop than to use paper. If you are required to use your laptop at school or if you just like to use your laptop a lot, then you should visit the website below to find out some great ways to increase the life of your laptop’s battery.

Like many other people here, I feel that traveling to visit my family is off the table. My entire family lives in Argentina, which is about 11 hours on a nonstop flight. They don’t come to visit very often, so not going to visit them would mean not seeing them for years at a time, or even not seeing them at all- something totally off the table.
Driving has lower CO2 emissions than flying, yet flying can be way more affordable with the rising prices of gas. Yet, when you drive somewhere, there’s no rush, no lines, and it’s just you and your family. Flying for 2 hours is more convenient than driving for 14 hours, that said, there’s no way my family an I would drive to Argentina- that would take days. With these types of long distance flights, there seems to be no way to lower the carbon footprint. Here’s a website that calculates the gas cost of driving somewhere vs. prices online for airplane tickets.

Something that would be “off the table” for me would be my computer and transportation. My computer is necessary for school. Almost every teacher requires that the student use their computer to do their work just about every day. It is something that I cannot compromise. Also, transportation would be “off the table” because I have to travel to get to school or to other places and to visit my family who lives across the country. None of these places are easily reached by walking or biking. If they were, I could try that, but they are too far for it. Even though I cannot give up these things, I can probably reduce energy use by turning off my computer when I’m not using it or carpooling with other people. There are also some other things I could do in my home to reduce energy consumption. Here is a helpful website that shows some ways.

Some things totally “off the table” for me would probably be my cellphone and transportation. In this time, it is just unsafe for us to simply be walking around without some sort of communication to others. In the article I linked, if it wasn’t for his cell phone he wouldn’t have been saved from the kidnappers. We could probably lessen our usage of the cellphone, though. We don’t always need to constantly check our test messages, emails, etc. The cell phone should be used for communication when it is needed. Transportation is also something I just can’t give up. I don’t live in the best of places in my town, so it wouldn’t be safe for me to just walk or bike to places I need to go. We could probably save energy by organizing a carpool and planning out a shorter route to use to lower our carbon footprint.

However, if this world was safer, I would definitely stop using my cell phone because it becomes a distraction at times. I would surely walk or bike to places I need to go, because I love being outside anyway. But with circumstances as these, we just can’t let these things go. Safety comes first.

I recently posted the something off the table was my cell phone, which made me think. I backed my reasoning up with websites and the fact that without my cell phone I do not have freedom. I kept circling back to freedom. The world we live in today is not always safe. My mother and father lived in the days when you would go out, and your parents would not worry because they always knew you would be home for dinner. It is not that simple today. That is why I said my phone is off the table. But if the world was a safer place, would I be willing to give up my phone. I like to think yes, but honestly I do not know. I depend on my phone with its calander, text messaging and other easy ways to communicate, I feel like it can simplify my life in someway. What we should really be asking ourselves is if we did not need our “off the table” items for certain reasons, would we be still be willing to give it up?