The Impact Of Carbon Footprint

Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Scientists have seen a measurable increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in recent decades. There is considerable consensus within the scientific community that this increase is due largely to human activity. Actions such as driving long distances to work, taking frequent flights, and living in a large home can lead to large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. One way of measuring these emissions is through carbon footprints. A carbon footprint is an individual’s aggregate carbon emissions across various aspects of their life. Once an individual can see quantitatively the size of their carbon footprint, and compare these results to peer, national,

Rather than living in a northeastern exurban setting, I plan to live in a city in a warm climate. I plan to live in an apartment much smaller than my current house, which should reduce the amount of electricity and heating oil I use. Additionally, living in a city will allow me to rely more heavily on public transportation, perhaps so much so that I would not need to own a car. I would like to live in a bike friendly city that would further reduce my carbon outputs. One figure that remained the same, rather than declining, was flights. I still expect to travel frequently in the future, but hopefully the cut downs in other aspects of my life will make this carbon indulgence less egregious. Compared to national averages, my current carbon footprint is quite large. In fact, based on the data from 2014, it is 15.8 metric tons more than the national average(Europa). When the scope is widened to include the whole world, my current emissions seem even worse. The world average is 4.936, which is significantly less than my 32.30 metric tons of emissions (Europa). However, if I adjust my habits and lifestyle as I hope to in the next five years, my emissions will be below the national average and only slightly above the world