To use your car's carbon footprint as an example: the first method would take into account all carbon emissions required to build the car (including all the metal, plastic, glass and other materials), drive the car and dispose of the car; the second would account only for the fossil fuels that resulted from building, driving and disposing of it.
Okay, so everything has a carbon footprint, and each can be measured a couple different ways, but it's not just a matter of carbon dioxide, though that is the most common of greenhouse gases (GHGs) other than water vapor; other GHGs include (but aren't limited to) methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons. Given this, still, most carbon footprint calculations include all applicable gases, as they all contribute to the greenhouse effect and our persistently warming globe.
"WHAT IS MY CARBON FOOTPRINT?" CALCULATING YOUR OWN FOOTPRINT
Though a fairly complex calculation, with many variables that are different for each person, carbon footprint calculations generally include energy used to power our homes and transport, including travel by car, airplane, rail and other public transport, as well as all the consumables we use on a regular (and irregular) basis; many of the individual factors above can be calculated separately (e.g. an individual carbon footprint for your home, travel, food, etc.). Once you understand what goes in to your carbon footprint, and, probably more importantly, what your carbon footprint is, you can start reducing it; indeed, for as many ways as there are to create a carbon footprint, there are ways to reduce it.
REDUCING YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
Increasing the efficiency of our energy use, reducing our energy use and changing a few habits (like eating less meat, eating more local food, not traveling by airplane as much) are some of the quick, easy ways to cut back on the size our individual carbon footprints.
WHERE DO CARBON OFFSETS FIT IN CARBON FOOTPRINTS?
After increasing efficiency and reducing use, carbon offsets are also an increasingly popular (and increasingly controversial) way to help mitigate our carbon footprints. But the point remains: there are many, many ways to reduce and even eliminate your carbon footprint. Moving forward, we expect to see more and more information about the carbon footprints of the things we encounter and use every day; carbon labeling for produce is catching on the UK, and we've seen carbon footprint measurements for everything from cheeseburgers to Christmas, and sushi to Shaq. Want more? Type 'carbon footprint' into our search engine, above, on the right, and go nuts.
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