Driving your car? Sure. Taking a plane trip? Of course. But choosing what to eat for dinner? Did you know that many of our daily decisions can increase or decrease our overall carbon dioxide emissions?
Find out how your own behaviors are impacting climate change through The Nature Conservancy's easy-to-use carbon calculator. Answer a few simple questions about your behaviors and choices and learn which ones have the most impact on your carbon emissions.
Inevitably, in going about our daily lives – commuting, sheltering our families, eating – each of us contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change. Yet, there are many things each of us – as individuals – can do to reduce emissions. The choices we make in our homes, our travel, the food we eat, and what we buy and throw away can help ensure a stable climate for future generations.
Use The Nature Conservancy's carbon calculator to measure your – or your household's – climate impact. The calculator will estimate how many tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases your choices create each year.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas in our atmosphere. This means that the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere directly influences how much of the sun’s heat stays in the atmosphere, which is a key factor in climate change.
One ton of carbon dioxide is released when you travel 5,000 miles in an airplane, drive 2,500 miles in a medium-sized car, or cut down and burn a tree that was about one foot in diameter and 40 feet tall.
There are other greenhouse gases as well, such as methane and nitrous oxide. This calculator includes these gases in your results and reports them in a standardized measure called “tons of CO2 equivalent”.
Visit today. Do your part to fight climate change.
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See our climate-saving tips (link stays on Gather) from a real Nature Conservancy scientist!
Happy Earth Day, everyone! :)
http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/locator/index.htm
If your utility does not offer a green energy option, try the Sterling Planet "national offer" program. This is what I do, at about $30/month:
http://www.sterlingplanet.com/
If TVA provides your electricity, you can buy green energy through the green power switch program:
http://www.tva.com/greenpowerswitch/index.htm
Still, I think that in order to make a significant difference in reduction of our CO2 emissions, government is going to have to change the rules for how energy is procured and used. One of the most far reaching bills in the Senate now is the Sanders/Boxer bill, S. 309. You can become a "citizen co-sponsor" by following this link:
http://ga6.org/campaign/citizen_cosponsor?rk=j7NeAWp1FXnrE
This is a wonderful article. Thanks for sharing it with me.
Although we'd love to give everyone who's concerned about the environment unlimited credit for all the good work they do every day, we need to pay attention to the actual impact as according to scientific data.
Don't be discouraged, Janet! By not eating meat and living in an apartment, you're reducing your impact on the climate by quite a bit! I personally thank you for being so conscious about limiting your impact.
In the future I plan to build an earth friendly very small home on land with my horses. Is there any governmental incentives or assistance I should be aware of?
Have you heard of homes constructed from old tires?
Me, I'm trying to find a good source of solar equipment to build my own solar generation unit.
As public interest in these aging global doomers dies down to pity, and as the global temperature continues to fail to rise in accordance with the IPCC's laughably-exaggerated predictions, the self-congratulatory rhetoric that is the hallmark of the now-useless, costly and corrupt UN will again be willingly parroted like trained seals by lazy, unthinking politicians and journalists who ought to have done their duty. The worst offenders were the paid consultants posing in lab coats calling themselves scientists. Unlike the WMD scam from the neocons, this criminal level of enticing global riots with needless fear and anxiety will not go unpunished.
I urge everyone to write hand written letters to all levels of government to stop this embarrassing part of our civilized history.
We can work together to preserve our world. The planet is fine; it's this particular culture and this place in time that will seen akin to witch burning and sacrificing virgins.
Letting this insane poison from these fear mongering and misguided Greenzis will drag us into a new dark age.