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