Think about all the foods you eat throughout the day.Some people track their calories, which measure how much energy you get from what you consume.In terms of calories, many adults probably know a rough estimate of what they eat each day.
“This is a lot more measured over a year,” said Dr Seth Wynes, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University in Montreal. “It’s all the carbon that’s going into the atmosphere as a result of your actions. The sum of pollution.”
You can get a feel for your numbers by looking up a carbon footprint calculator online.We took a look at this.You may find it helpful.
Here’s how it works: you tell the system how many people you have in your home, where you live, what you eat, and how you travel – answer various questions, and the calculator shows you where you are, then how you stack up Up; compare your numbers to those of people living in similar households.(Author’s note: The tool only takes about five minutes to use and the results can be insightful. I recommend this!)
“Carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) produced by our actions. The average carbon footprint of a person in the United States is 16 tons, one of the highest in the world. Globally, the average carbon footprint Close to 4 tons. To minimize a 2°C rise in global temperature, the global average annual carbon footprint needs to drop below 2 tons by 2050.”
So, here’s the gist: we can do more — reduce our own carbon footprint and help protect the planet from climate change.
We asked Dr. Wynes and another expert, Dr. Benjamin Goldstein, Assistant Professor of Bioresource Engineering in McGill University’s Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, for some advice on how people can improve their actions on Earth.
“The biggest areas where we can change as individuals…the three main drivers that account for 70 to 80 percent of our carbon footprint are how and how much you travel; your home and powering it; and your food choices,” Gordon said. Destin said.”These are the Big Three as a general rule in America”
“Commuting back and forth is a lot,” Goldstein said.”If you can telecommute two days a week, you can reduce emissions by 40 per cent.”
Plus, Wynes said, it would be even better if you could avoid internal-combustion vehicles entirely—that is, anything you top up with diesel or gasoline.”E-cars are (preferred), even better than those (are) electric bikes, take public transport or walk where possible,” he added.
“We don’t have a low-carbon way of flying,” he said.”But you can vacation closer to home, take the train, explore your area, or simply not fly to South America. It doesn’t mean forever (flying to South America). Just do less.”
Goldstein and Wynes both recommend heat pumps and solar panels – and Wynes also talks about induction cooktops.Even something as simple as better insulation should help keep your energy bills down if you live in cold weather.
Back to the first item: If you know your home will soon need to replace its furnace, you might want to start thinking about a heat pump, which collects heat from the ground.
“It allows you to basically switch from the Earth’s core to geothermal,” Goldstein said.”It’s not renewable, but it will (approximately) exist as long as humans are alive.”
You can read about heat pumps and what they mean here.It’s almost like a more sophisticated air conditioner.By the way, it can heat your home in winter and cool it in summer.
Some homes may have a harder time installing a heat pump than others.Both scientists noted that these pumps are expensive, although they have gotten cheaper over time, like most technologies.
The heat pump will also pay you back over time.The government may also offer rebates or subsidies.
“But you should investigate ahead of time before your furnace goes out,” Wynes said.”You don’t want to miss out because the time has come and you’re not ready.”
As mentioned above, solar panels on the roof are also environmentally friendly if you own the home or you have control over where you live, but renters often don’t have those options.As Goldstein explains, this idea of ​​a carbon footprint involves some systemic challenges (which we’ll discuss more about shortly).
In the end, Wynes says, recent research shows that gas cooking isn’t as good for your health, and induction is better.
If you’re using something like an induction cooktop, which is another fairly new technology, it only heats the pan instead of the entire cooktop, for example, if you’re boiling a pot of water.
It’s a very precise way of cooking, and since it’s just heating the pan, induction won’t cause a fire.Even if you leave it on, it won’t burn down the house, Wynes added.
“Some people will buy a range that can be added over the counter to avoid gas. If you’re buying a new home, now is a good time to do an onboarding,” Wynes said.
To serve a piece of beef, for every calorie you get from a steak, you have to feed that cow 10 calories, Goldstein said.That cow also came from a farm that involved carbon emissions.Think about everything involved: land, water, greenhouse gases, and methane from cows.
But that doesn’t mean you need to be vegetarian or vegan.Aiming to reduce your consumption also helps.
“Turn meat into a treat,” Goldstein said.”Make it extra special, that’s what it used to be, whatever. Eat less.”
We do live in an age where there are alternatives.Goldstein mentions Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods as a reminder that “there are good alternatives.”
As for why beef may be more problematic than other forms of meat, you have to consider the process of maturing the cow.
“With beef, we have to make cows live longer,” Goldstein said.”From a carbon emissions perspective, pork and chicken are more efficient.”
“If I want a pound of beef and a pound of pork, the greenhouse gas emissions from beef are five to six times that of pork,” Goldstein said.
Pigs and chickens also don’t produce as much methane.These are all good things to keep in mind the next time you’re looking at a menu at a restaurant or grocery store.
As we mentioned before, the whole concept of a carbon footprint reflects everyone’s personal contribution to climate change: the total amount of greenhouse gases you produce from eating, transporting, living in your home, and buying everything you need to survive and thrive.
The carbon footprint calculator can inspire people to make changes, Goldstein said, and it’s best viewed as a communication tool to help understand lifestyles and their impact on climate change.
Remember, we can take action, and the choices we make are influential, but the systems we live in limit what we can actually do, Goldstein said.
For example, let’s say you live in the Midwest.The trend for electricity is from coal or natural gas.
“I need to live my life,” Goldstein said, as he was the one who brought up the example.”Even if I want to be climate friendly, I can’t control where (the stuff) comes from. I have to live in the system I’m embedded in.”
Sure, some electricity providers may give you some green-friendly options, but most electricity comes from the grid and is fossil fuel based.”We can’t change that,” Goldstein said.”If low-carbon energy isn’t available, we can’t tell people to use it.”
He also gave this example: think about how we travel: why is there no high-speed rail network?High-speed rail can help people avoid flying, driving around, and sitting in traffic.
“If we have alternatives … then people can travel in a lower carbon way,” Goldstein said.
So in the meantime, here’s what we can do with the system: get in touch with your representative.Write to them, tweet them, and encourage them to vote for low carbon initiatives.You can also vote carbon-friendly.
Our transportation and energy systems are predetermined in some ways for us, so we have to look beyond our own households.
As the author of this story, when I mention in our own comments section what I keep seeing and reading, the thought, “I’m just a human being, how does that make a difference?” provides a clever analogy.
“It’s an insurmountable psychological barrier,” he admits.”But a lot of people voted and they thought it was important.”
On top of that, he added: “The planet is overheating. Wildfires in the west, that’s because of climate change. Sea levels are rising, hurricanes are more intense… (this is also related). What we really want to do is make these Disasters are less catastrophic so we can have a more habitable planet.”
If we look at this idea of ​​a carbon footprint analytically, one problem is that, by its very nature, it places a burden on the individual – as Goldstein points out, it’s bigger than that.
“But I don’t want people to feel bad,” Goldstein said.”We just need to find out more. ‘Does what I do make me happy? Is that enough? Do I need an extra car, or can I drive one?’”
Goldstein added: “We need to empower people – I don’t like people being desperate and frustrated about it. We need to attack it from both sides.”
If you’re the first person in your neighborhood to buy an electric car, chances are you’ll share it and say, ‘I’m saving on gas.The car is so quiet,’ the neighbors would pick it up and talk about it.It’s similar to having solar panels on the roof or replacing the stove with a heat pump – people might hear it or ask, “What’s that new?”
“You have to make these changes and talk about them. It’s part of going all out to solve this problem, and it really takes everyone’s contribution.”
Goldstein’s research expertise is developing methods to quantify and map urban resource use.He has also published research on estimating and analyzing the carbon footprint of individual U.S. households