The Pros And Cons Of Carbon Footprint

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From my understanding, carbon emissions are the release of carbon into the atmosphere, most commonly due to the burning of fossil fuels like cruel oil and coal. Carbon emissions trap heat in our atmosphere and are partly responsible for causing global warming. The problem with heat being trapped in our atmosphere is that it causes things like the glaciers to melt, the sea levels to rise, the oceans becoming more acidic and the global temperature to rise. One way to be more consensus about how much carbon is being released is to do a carbon footprint. Carbon footprints are the measure of how carbon an individual or group is releasing into the atmosphere. My carbon footprint was 15.06 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. This number is under the United States average of 20.04 but, I would be interested to see my parent’s carbon footprints. They provide things that the whole family uses which …show more content…

When I thought of carbon footprint my mind went to how often I travel and how much gas we use at home. So, when I got to the secondary tab and it asked for things like how much I spend on clothes and books I was confused why it was asking which lead to me looking up what a secondary carbon footprint was. I now know that a secondary carbon footprint is the indirect emissions caused by consuming manufactured goods. My demand for products causes them to be produced which in turn causes more carbon to be emitted, so I am partially responsible for those emissions as well as the ones I directly consume. While this is not exactly good news for me it does make me reevaluate what things I really need to be consuming as well make me more responsible for the health of the environment. It is easy to blame big companies for the increase of carbon in the atmosphere but, if it wasn’t for consumer desire for new things these companies would not exist and they would not be emitting

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