Understanding Your Carbon Footprint

by | Sep 10, 2019 | Carbon Footprint, Climate Equity - Just Transitions, Start

check-carbon-footprint

Consider this:

@AssaadRazzouk An American’s fridge uses 458 kw/h per year. That’s 7 times more electricity than the average Ethiopian uses in total in one year 3 times a Nigerian or Kenyan 1 times a Pakistani a or a Bangladeshi 57% of an Indian or Indonesian 27% of an Egyptian And that’s just the US fridge
His point?
@AssaadRazzouk My point: Americans have to go stronger and faster than everyone else in electrifying everything, instituting carbon reductions and moving to 100% renewable energy. No one else comes close in terms of planetary impact
This is the thing a lot of Americans miss when we’re talking about the carbon footprint: ours are higher per person than anyone else’s on the planet. We have the biggest responsibility to reduce our carbon footprints.
global carbon footprint comparison
Yes, China has a larger total footprint than the US now, because they are Ameri-fying their economy towards massive consumption and because of their massive population, but Americans have been doing this a long time. The fact is that the Earth cannot handle everyone in China and India upping their consumption game to that of the US. We already consume more resources in a year than the Earth can produce:

The fact that has shocked me the most is the Overshoot Day: By July 29th, we used up all the regenerative resources of 2019. From July 30 we started to consume more resources than the planet can regenerate in a year. It’s very serious. It’s a global emergency.

Pope FrancisLa Stampa, August 9, 2019; Source: Earth Overshoot Day

So this is why it’s important to understand your carbon footprint, your main sources of emissions, and how you can reduce your impact. Southern Illinois University has a brief carbon footprint tutorial that explains all this, including specific instructions with links to sources of information about specific activities to reduce your footprint. You can even practice by using a very simple app called MyEarth. It’s easy to go through this exercise, and after you do, you’ll understand, and that’s a big step. Understanding your carbon footprint is the first step in The Climate Economy’s 3-Step program towards a low-carbon lifestyle.

 

We all have a responsibility to do our best for future generations. Understanding our carbon footprint needs to be a top priority for everyone, especially Americans. Let’s show the world how much we care!
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