I’m sure you’ve heard this before. And it couldn’t be more true with carbon footprints on the rise in America and other western countries.
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases that are generated by our daily activities.
The average carbon footprint of a typical U.S. household is 52.91 tons. To have a chance of reversing the climate crisis, this number needs to drop by over half by the year 2050.
But lowering carbon footprints this much doesn’t just happen overnight! We can all make small changes to our actions to help reduce our footprint:
- Eating less meat and dairy
- Taking less connecting flights
- Drying our clothes on a line instead of a dryer
- Carpooling or using public transportation
- Using sustainable and locally-sourced goods
- Keeping the lights off and appliances unplugged when not used
- Using cold water for laundry and dishes
All of these small changes can add up to a BIG impact.
But how do you know where to start?
Luckily you don’t have to be a climate scientists yourself to start making an impact. By using a carbon footprint calculator you can find where your footprint is the highest and start to lower it.
It’s really that simple!
There are a few calculators on the web to choose from, but this is the best one I could find that was completely free to use.
You just have to answer a few questions with their short quiz and they will do all the hard work for you. Honestly, I’m not sure how they are able to offer this for free…but I’m not complaining!
There are others but some of them aren’t free so I can’t fully recommend them for everyone.
Once You Calculate, You Can Choose to Offset
Once you find your footprint, you will know exactly how to take action by making more green choices in your daily life.
But it’s almost impossible to reduce your footprint low enough to go completely carbon neutral. This is just a part of modern life in America.
You don’t have to feel guilty about this though! I used to feel bad about my carbon footprint, because I am the first one to admit that I love shopping and eating out at restaurants with my friends and family. But just know that there are ways to make a positive impact for the environment without sacrificing everything you love to do.
There are many amazing organizations that allow you to offset your footprint 100%. It’s like Netflix for the planet. For a small price every week they will do all of the hard work for you.
I personally make it a fun challenge for myself. Every week I give up Starbucks 1 time and I know I’m healing the planet and saving animals.
The Different Types of Offsets
Just like carbon calculators, not all offsets are the same. Some are focused on funding new technology like oil companies who are working on ways to erase methane from the air directly. And some pay people in other countries to reduce their footprint for you.
And others are focused on planting trees and saving endangered animals.
It really comes down to your personal preferences.
I have always loved animals and tree planting is such a simple way to see the impact your making so I personally use 8 Billion Trees. They are the largest tree-planting project in the Amazon Rainforest.
How it works is they find areas destroyed by illegal loggers or wildfires. Then they start planting trees and rescue any animals they find and take them to the wildlife sanctuary to give them veterinary care.
Once the trees are growing healthy, they return the animals back to the forest in their new tree home.
They actually just posted a new video about it!
Progress Doesn’t Happen in a Vacuum
I am tired of seeing so much negativity in the climate crisis.
I understand we are in a really bad situation, you only have to watch the news or browse the web to run into more information that confirms we’re killing our planet.
But there is hope! We can all make a difference for the planet and animals.
Progress doesn’t “just happen” inside of a vacuum. It takes real effort, like reducing your emissions, calculating your footprint, or offsetting your emissions.
But the good news is all of that effort ads up…BIG time.
If we all do our part and take responsibility for our footprints, we can give Mother Earth a fresh breath of life and start leaving our planet better than we found it for future generations of plants and animals.
7 replies on “There Is No Planet B”
I had no idea my carbon footprint was so high! I’m glad there are free ways to calculate and even take action because you are SO right…we can all make a difference.
I hope more people will read this article so they can calculate their footprint! I’m sharing it with my friends and family because we talk about this stuff almost every week it seems.
Very well said Amy. Where can I read more of your thought-provoking journalism? I would love to follow you!
Please commit to the protection of the planet.
amen!!
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Thanks for sharing. I read many of your blog posts, cool, your blog is very good.