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Michael Iuliano

The Issue at Hand

Global warming is a tricky concept; it’s not just a problem that can go away. For

example, dieting is a problem that takes time and no matter what you do you can’t

change the fact that you have body fat. Well same goes for global warming there is so

much Co2 in are atmosphere there is no one solution to get rid of it. But as with most

problems you can lessen the damage by working on the problem at hand. So, what is

the best solution? Well, I believe that the simplest solution is reducing everyone’s

carbon footprint.

Reducing the carbon emissions we produce is not a job for one person. It needs

to be implemented into the daily routine of everyone. For starters, since the U.S.

produces about 22% of the world's emissions of CO2, there should be rules and

regulations on how much each person, building, corporation and country is able

produce.

Can you say the Kyoto Protocol? Yep, that was the first attempt in 1997 by the

UN to establish a global roll back of human generated greenhouse gas emissions to the

levels emitted in 1992. Unfortunately, its application was rather onerous on the United

State stipulating a disproportional financial and economic burden in order to reach those

goals. Needless to say, money and politics won out and the US no longer is a

participant. Even though most countries have signed and ratified the accord many

cheat or simply ignore the goals.


So now what? I guess its up to each and every individual to reduce his or her

own personal carbon footprint. But how can we do this? Well, lets look at what makes

up a carbon footprint. That would be the burning of fossil fuels for the purpose of:

1) Heating and Cooling

2) Electricity Creation and Consumption

3) Transportation / Gasoline Consumption

4) Food Creation and Consumption

5) Waste Disposal

6) Lifestyle habits

The majority of homes and buildings burn natural gas or oil for heating. An

alternative to that could be taking heat from the ground. Yes, that sounds weird, but the

ground is always relatively warm averaging around a constant 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

By using a heat pump and a small amount of electricity the ground can act as either a

heat source for heating or if run in reverse, can act as a heat sink, to dump heat for

cooling. On top of that, there are also heat pumps that pull heat from the air and heat

your home. It’s really nothing more than an air conditioner run in reverse. Both of these

methods are great because they don’t directly burn fossil fuels. In fact, even if you have

97% efficient gas furnace its nowhere as efficient as a heat pump. That’s because the

heat pump produces 3-4 units of heat for every unit of electricity used. That’s 300% to

400% efficient. So either heat pump type can greatly reduce the amount of carbon

dioxide being emitted on daily basis.

Another huge source of carbon emission is the burning of coal, natural gas and

oil for the production of electricity. A wonderful alternative way to produce electricity is

through the use of solar panels. Each panel is made up of a group of semiconductor
cells that passively convert of sunlight directly into electricity. Since the sunlight acts as

the driving force to produce the electricity no carbon emission are created. If we could

capture around 1 percent of the sunlight striking the earth, we could produce enough

electricity to meet the majority of the world needs. As this technology becomes more

advanced solar power will become cheaper to buy, collect more sunlight and be able to

produce more electricity. Solar power is causing shift our dependency on burning fossil

fuels. We are seeing this effect happen already with the collapse of the coal industry as

solar power is displacing the need for coal fired electric generation plants. Even better,

in the long run switching to solar will save all of us money because we are no longer

spending it on purchasing fossil fuels.

Additionally, wind power can do the same. Wind is another way of producing

energy that does not burn fossil fuels. Wind power is nothing more than and new take

on the old windmills. Gigantic blades set on tall towers catch the wind and turn a

turbine, which creates emission free electricity. Because of wind power in 2012 we

avoided the release of 79.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere

according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Wind is very efficient because it no fuel

cost and does not take much space.

Lets look at another area of serious carbon emission. Cars trucks and buses

used in transportation produce excessive amounts of greenhouse gases through tail

pipe emissions. Interestingly, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk created an automobile

company that only produces electric cars. Almost instantly these cars stole a huge

market share and took the traditional internal combustion engine industry by shock. It is

now the fastest growing car company ever and big companies like Ford have been

caught flat-footed and are racing to catch up. As this trend continues millions of cars
that produce tail pipe emissions will be swapped out for electric cars powered by

renewable energy with no emissions. If every car company switches to electric power

over fossil fuels it would significantly reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere

thereby lowering the amount of greenhouse gas which will in turn lower the global

temperature. Economically by purchasing electric cars we are not only helping the

environment but we are also improving our national trade imbalance. That is, by not

needing to pay for imported oil our money stays in the United States and can be used

for other purchases that support our economy. On a personal level since you don’t need

to buy gas anymore you can save tons of money or spend it on things you really want.

Better yet, solar power can go hand and hand with electric cars by effectively allowing

us to recharge car batteries by electricity produced from sunlight.

Besides solar and wind power there are small things every person can do around

the house to further reduce your carbon footprint. Lets examine food. All foods have

some intrinsic carbon footprint to produce but some are worse than others. Rice

requires only sunlight and water to grow but a hamburger has a whole lot of steps to get

to your plate, which makes it is very energy intensive to produce. So the bottom line is

that plant foods create least carbon emission to produce while animal based foods

create the most carbon emission to produce. So a shift in diet can have a very large

impact on carbon emissions.

Another large area of carbon emissions is waste disposal. Think about how

much crude oil and other fossil fuels went into making all the stuff sitting in your kitchen

garbage can. A meal is not just eating something and throwing away the unwanted

portion. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, 30 percent of food is

wasted globally across the supply chain, contributing 8 percent of total global
greenhouse gas emissions. Starting from growing food on a farm, farmers produce

tractor emissions, cow’s digestive system produce methane and chemical fertilizer used

to grow crops is partly synthesized from oil. After leaving the farm the food goes to

market where it is sold to food processors. During food processing more energy is

added to convert raw ingredients into packaged products. Then when the food reaches

the store more production of electricity is needed for lighting, climate control and

refrigeration. Finally, as we cook, eat and discard the waste we produce even more

emissions in the process. Those bags of garbage just create huge landfill emissions

from decaying food. So maybe our motto should be “Think before you buy, eat organic,

eat less meat and more plants and recycle”.

Along with cutting down on food waste there is also the issue of lifestyle. Simple

steps in changing lifestyle can help cut down on carbon emissions. Plan on walking or

using a bike for transportation. Buy a solar panels for your house, replace old

appliances with new energy efficient appliances, use energy efficient LED light bulbs

instead of incandescent bulbs, use water efficient shower heads, cut down on water hot

water use, avoid products with a lot of packaging, turn off lights and unplug electronic

devices, and switch to an electric car.

If our world governments can’t solve global warming it is up to each of us to think

global and then act local by embracing a lifestyle that actively strives to reduced our

carbon footprint. Hopefully this will create a rapid and dramatic decrease in greenhouse

gases and set us on our way to a better planet.

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