Global Warming, CO2, and You

Energy Types -lights House %ar +us and 6ail 7econdary Total Energy Consumption Before 1tonnes of %&'2 #.34 #.3. #.5$ #..$ 8.9' ".#$ Energy Consumption After 1tonnes of %&'2 #.34 #.3. #.5$ #..$ '.34 %.$" Table 1 After taking the quiz it is evident from table 1 that our average carbon footprint is lower than the average U.K. person. However if you were to compare our average carbon footprint to that of the average person in the world you would find that ours is more than double that value. f we were to compare the results of our average carbon footprint to that of a developing country! such as Kenya then you would see that our average is more than ten times larger than Kenya"s whose average currently stands at #.$1 tonnes %&'. (e believe that the vast difference in our carbon footprint is to do with the fact that the average person in Kenya is significantly poorer than the average person in the UK and so cannot afford lu)uries such as cars and central heating for their homes. *his will then make a huge difference in the amount of energy that they consume daily! subsequently reducing their own carbon footprint. A lower standard of living will also affect the average Kenyans carbon footprint. *hey will not be able to afford flights and can only dream of flying to go on holiday! whereas a large proportion of +ritish people will use an aircraft to travel at least once a year! greatly increasing their own carbon footprint. ,astly another great deal of energy is wasted daily on packaging foods at supermarkets etc. greatly increasing energy usage as opposed to most Kenyans who will grow their own foods saving the need for packaging and transport of produced goods to supermarkets and stores. *he changes that our group made had a significant impact on our average carbon footprint. &ur three changes to our lifestyle were to try and recycle more! buy products with less packaging! and when driving change to higher gears to keep the rev counter down lower and therefore emitting less %&'. -rom table 1 it can be seen that it reduced our footprint by almost .#/! therefore showing that even these few changes to our lifestyles can have a massive impact on the environment! although it is only the 0secondary" row which proves these changes proved to be very effective. U. A!erage &."' World A!erage (.'' World Aim 2.''

-or our group average to be taken down to the recommended level to halt climate change we would need to implement the following: ;o flights ;o car &nly buy essential furniture<electrical equipment and use it until it wears out =on"t buy anything which has packaging around it &nly buy organic food &nly buy or grow in season food >row our own food ?verything we use is recycled or composted &nly do zero carbon activities e.g. cycling ?ven though all these changes would take our average down to the recommended level to halt climate change they are not realistic targets. *hey are not realistic because even though holidays abroad are not essential they are lu)uries that we would prefer to go on if they are affordable. Also we believe that it would be very difficult for people to change their habits and also to give up their lu)urious lifestyles which they are so used to. However we feel that given a lengthy period of time these difficulties could be overcome. n order to achieve these results we feel that there will have to be help provided by governing bodies to assist and implement the changes needed to reduce our carbon footprint to the world aim. Also technology will need to improve and develop ways of how to use renewable energy to power our lifestyles. &ur group believes that if we continue living our lives as we do and en@oy the comforts that we have become accustomed to then this will have an impact on the environment. (e come to this conclusion as it is shown in table 1 that we had to make several changes! to begin with! @ust to bring our carbon footprint down by .#/! which is twoAandAaAhalf times greater than the world target. -urthermore! we feel that to bring our carbon footprint to the recommended level it would cause difficulties and would also be very time consuming! therefore by the time changes have been implemented the environment will already be compromisedB