Your Carbon Footprint

Do you know how much carbon dioxide you are responsible for?

Author: Ignacio (Costa Rica, Young Reporter)

We are usually unaware of the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) we cause with our daily lifestyle. If you want to set yourself the goal of reducing contamination, your first step should be to figure out exactly how much carbon dioxide (CO2) you are producing and what are your main sources of emissions. Nowadays, there are a lot of carbon footprint calculators online that give us estimates on what our emissions are. These are based on questionnaires that take into account several areas of your daily life.

Emissions are measured in tons of CO2, still there are also other gases produced that, like CO2, end up in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. Some of the most important areas of CO2 production are transportation, food consumption, shopping and utilities. Carbon calculators ask questions to determine how much GHGs you emit for each of these areas and add your results to give you an estimate of what areas you can improve in. It is important to remember that there is no perfect calculator, when it comes to estimating emissions there are countless factors which could affect your results.

After using a carbon footprint calculator, you can identify which are your biggest sources of CO2 and decide what changes you can make to lower or cancel the negative effects they may be having on the environment. There are also calculators that can be used to estimate the emissions of business or even organizations. These can be helpful for big groups of people who want to make a change. The first step to solving a problem is understanding the issue. Please take the time to figure out your carbon footprint and adjust your lifestyle for the best.