This blog contains information about Carbon Footprint and Strategies to reduce Carbon Footprint. The activities that involves in Carbon Footprint includes Pollution, Food Consumption, Products utilization etc. The strategies that can control Carbon Footprint are, 4R strategy, Grow your own food, Prefer Public Transport, Promote Renewable energy etc.
1. What is the term “Footprint” means in the Environmental Field?
Footprint in Environmental and Ecological context is the number of concepts that measures the Impact of Human Activities. Every sign, measurement or evidence that shows the Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on the Environment is included in Footprint of that specific substance that is used as an evidence. It describes the speed of consumption of Resources by humans in a given time. The basic purpose of studying and analyzing Footprints in science, is to Understand Sustainability and Environmental Impact of the Natural Resources that is under consideration.
There are three main Footprints that play an important role in analyzing and also understanding the Environmental Impacts in the Field of Environmental Sciences and Environmental Engineering. These three Footprints are given below:
1) Ecological Footprint:
It is a metric that measures the amount of land that is needed to support a person, community or product. This is the estimate of the land that is required for survival and prosperity of a person, or a group of people on land. It also includes the average amount of resources to produce or to absorb the waste produced by people.
2) Carbon Footprint:
It is the measure of Carbon and Methane emitted in the Environment by a person, product or an organization. This is the measure of Carbon emission from an individual brand or organization. It tells us the utilization of Carbon containing products or carbon emitting manufacturing industries. This can be useful for estimating Carbon emissions to work on Sustainable Strategies.
3) Chemical Footprint:
It is the measure of Hazardous Chemicals that are used by a person, community or product. This is the estimation of Chemical manufacture and utilization of hazardous masses in the Environment. Chemical Footprint is basically devised for the purpose of estimating the Environmentally hazardous chemical and hazardous mass usage in order to control them sustainably.
These are the types of Footprints considered in Environmental field. These footprints can help us to estimate the average usage and production of Natural Resources and also the Impact of Human activities on those resources. In this way we can make Sustainable Strategies to control and stabilize their Environmental Impact.
2. What is Carbon Footprint?
Carbon Footprint is the total concentration of Carbon dioxide emissions from a person, organization or a product. It directly relates to the human activities and No Natural Sources of Carbon are involved.
The Carbon Footprint is the greatest threat to Environment and its well-being. There are many reasons why Carbon Footprint has the most significant impacts on the Environment than any other Environmental Footprint. It is because Fossil fuel burning, transportation and many other Human Activities are responsible for excessive Carbon and Carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. Carbon Footprint is causing rapid Climate Change and Global warming in the present era. We should be concerned with dealing with the Carbon Footprint personally and on Community level. This blog has the complete detail about Carbon Footprint and Strategies to reduce it.
3. What are the activities involved in Carbon Footprint?
Carbon Footprint is created from many daily life activities. This includes each and every activity that created Carbon emissions directly or indirectly into the Environment. Following are some of the daily life activities that creates your Carbon Footprint:
1. Pollution:
Every type of pollution is involves in creating your Carbon Footprint. Because the pollution is occurred by waste materials and these waste materials were produced by emitting carbon emissions into the atmosphere. In the same way Landfills and Dumpsters, also emits Methane and Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
2. Food Consumption:
The activities from food transport to food consumption in our houses, also contributes in creating the Carbon Footprint. The footprint starts from production of food by fertilizers and pesticides that were made by a lot of Carbon emissions. Then this food transports to the Urban Areas using Transportation and then people travel through vehicles to buy this food.
In the same way livestock contributes in Carbon Footprint very actively. It happens in the form of direct discharge of gases from them. Or release of Gases from animal waste. In the end, humans use them as food. All of the cycle in involved in creating Carbon Footprint of the people consuming it.
3. Products in use:
Every product that we use in our daily life reaches us by creating a lot of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Most of the chemicals and products are manufactured in the Industries and also creates Industrial Pollution of great levels. This depends on how much products are we consuming in our daily routine. The more products we will consume, the more Carbon Footprint we will create.
4. Transportation:
We frequently use personal vehicles to travel from one place to another. These vehicles constantly consume fossil fuels that cause the CO and also CO2 emissions into the Atmosphere. The number of personal vehicles around the world are increasing every year. So, this is creating a lot of Carbon Footprint in the Environment. We should limit the use of personal vehicles.
These are few daily life activities that involves in Carbon Footprint. As much as we will be doing these activities, we will have more Carbon Footprint.
4. How is Carbon Footprint Dangerous for the Environment?
Carbon Footprint is dangerous for the Environment because it contains Toxic carbon emissions into the Atmosphere. The most emitted carbon gas is Carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a Green House Gas that is warming gas. CO2 also traps heat and contributes into the Green House Effect. This gas is the biggest reason of Global warming because it is the Green House Gas with the most Concentration into the atmosphere. This makes the excessive release of CO2 very dangerous and it can be controlled by controlling human activities. It also alters the composition of the Natural Environment by warming effect and it also cast dangerous impacts on Vegetation and other Types of Biodiversity on Earth.
By controlling and managing Carbon Footprint, we can create a safer environment in every way. By decreasing our Carbon consumption, we can live a healthier life and also we will be able to deal with extreme Impacts of Climate Change and Global Warming. This will help us to create a Sustainable Environment. This blog is all about Carbon Footprint and Strategies to Reduce it.
5. What are some Sustainable Strategies to Reduce Carbon Footprint?
We need to work on the Strategies to reduce Carbon Footprint in order to eliminate its extreme impacts on the Environment. We can handle this by controlling the activities that are producing Carbon emissions and working on the elimination of Carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Following are some of the strategies to reduce Carbon Footprint:
- 4R Strategy
- Promote Renewable Energy
- Prefer Public Transport
- Plant Trees
- Reduce Household Consumption
- Grow your own food
These are the strategies that we can utilize in order to Reduce our Carbon Footprint. This blog contains explanation about each of these strategies in detail.
6. How can we reduce Carbon Footprint by 4R strategy?
4R strategy consists of 4Rs that we can utilize in order to live a Sustainable Life. These 4Rs will help you stabilize and maintain your consumption and help you to avoid Exploitation of Natural as well as Artificial Resources. The 4Rs of this strategy are below:
i. Reduce:
The first R is Reduce. Reduce guides us to control our consumptions and take it to the minimum levels so that it will cause least harm to the Environment from your side. This will help in the conservation of Natural and Artificial resources and maintain sustainability in your life.
ii. Reuse:
The second R is Reuse. The reuse process guides us about the reutilization of the products and goods in your daily life. It is the elimination of fast fashion as it guides you to reuse all the stuff you already have so this helps in reusing of all the available resources efficiently and is a step towards sustainability.
iii. Recycle:
The third R is Recycle. Recycling is the process of using the waste materials in your daily life for different purposes. This will effectively reduce the waste production and that waste will be valuable till its usage. For example, Recycling Plastic waste in making models and for growing plants.
iv. Recover:
The fourth R is Recover. Recover means to search the recoverable wastes and recover it by some process or treatment instead of manufacturing new products. This will utilize a large amount of waste and use it for welfare of humans. It will reduce the Carbon emissions by new products.
These are the 4Rs of 4R strategy. They can be very useful in creating a Sustainable life and managing Carbon emissions into the Environment.
7. How Renewable Energy can Reduce Carbon Footprint?
Utilization of Renewable energy is the most suitable and Sustainable way in reducing Carbon Footprint. The renewable energy comes from Renewable Natural resources. So, no extra energy is required to utilize them. It is different from conventional energy sources because its GHGs emissions are negligible as compared to other forms of Energy. By using Renewable energy sources in industries and manufacturing companies, we will be able to reduce GHG emissions from the industries that are the biggest contributors in Green House Gases Emissions and also Industrial Pollution.
8. How using Public Transport reduce Carbon Footprint?
Using Public transport is an effective and Sustainable way to reduce Carbon Footprint. It is because the Carbon emissions by personal vehicles will be adds to the Carbon Footprint of one person. While the carbon emissions from a public bus, will be divided among all the passengers of the bus. This will automatically reduce the Carbon Footprint of every individual using Public Transport. We should prefer walking or using a bicycle when going to nearby places instead of using personal vehicles for short distances as well. These steps will decrease Carbon Emissions. Electric Vehicles are also a good option in decreasing your Carbon Footprint.
9. How does Planting Trees reduce Carbon Footprint?
Planting trees are beneficial for the Environment in every possible way. Trees are the natural absorbers of Carbon Dioxide. If we plant more and more trees, we can reduce the excessive concentration of CO2 from the atmosphere. It will also contribute in reducing the temperatures of Afforested and Reforested areas at great levels. We should also promote Green Infrastructure i.e. Green Building, Green Walls and Green Roofs in order to increase Carbon dioxide absorption to reduce Carbon Footprint.
10. How reducing Household Consumption helps in reducing Carbon Footprint?
Household consumption means the energy consumption in the form of Inefficient Appliances, Electricity usage and other types of energy consumptions on household level. Every appliance utilizes electrical energy that produces while emitting lots of Carbon emissions in the atmosphere. We should try to reduce our energy consumption such as switch off extra lights, using Energy efficient appliances and energy savers in your homes. This will be a big step towards reducing your Carbon Footprint.
11. How Growing your food helps in reducing Carbon Footprint?
The pesticides and fertilizers that we use in the farming practices, contributes in GHGs emissions including Carbon dioxide. These emissions increase as the food consumption increase by population growth. If we will grow our own food, we will not be dependent on others and any excessive Carbon emissions for food supply. This will also eliminate the contribution of Transportation of food because it will be available in your kitchen garden. This is a sustainable step towards reducing your Carbon Footprint and build Sustainability in your lives.
- All of these strategies can be effective against your Carbon Footprint. And these activities will make your life Sustainable and Eco-friendly and also reduce the harm you cause for the Environment. This blog is about Carbon Footprint and Strategies to reduce it.
12. Conclusion:
Carbon emissions are most common in your world and are the most dangerous Environmental Threat for us. Carbon Footprint is the Carbon emissions by a person, community and also a product. The activities involved in Carbon emissions are; Transportation, Food Consumption, Pollution etc. These activities makes your Carbon Footprint. The strategies to control Carbon Footprint includes; 4R strategy, Renewable energy, Grow your own food, Prefer Public Transport etc.
By following the above strategies, we can work of reducing Carbon Footprint. This will decrease or eliminate the harmful effects that are caused by Carbon Emissions into the Environment. And help us to move towards a Sustainable life and Eco-friendly Lifestyle.
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