What Is Carbon Footprint and How to Measure It?

What Is Carbon Footprint and How to Measure It?
As the awareness about climate change increases across the world, our desire to do something about this matter also increases. As individuals, everybody has a hard time understanding how they can help in reversing such a global problem and what kind of connection there is between our daily life and survival of polar bears. In fact, each individual action has consequences for the planet. We know that our life style emits harmful gases to the atmosphere and increases the temperature in the world while disrupting weather and climate regimes, vegetation and human health. 

Thus, these good, bad and measurable impacts of our individual and social actions are called carbon footprint.
We compiled below what carbon footprint means, how to measure it and common sources of carbon emissions for you. 

What Is Carbon Footprint?
In its simplest definition “Carbon Footprint” is the total measurement of greenhouse gases that human life style emits to the atmosphere. 

According to Mike Berners-Lee, a professor at Lancaster University, England and the writer of Carbon Footprint Everything , “Carbon footprint is the total of all greenhouse gas emissions resulting from production of a product or realization of an activity.” 

In summary, the greenhouse gas effect stemming from energy sources we consume in our homes, transportation, food and kitchen appliances, and the products we buy such as our clothes, our cars and TV sets constitute our carbon footprint. We may say that a person’s carbon footprint is the total of the products the person buys and uses and the activities they are engaged in, etc. 

For example, a person who regularly consumes meat would have a bigger food footprint compared to his vegan neighbor. However, if the person eating meat is commuting to his office by riding a bicycle, his neighbor who commutes to work every day by car may have a bigger      than him. 

In his book, Berners-Lee writes that an average world citizen has a carbon footprint equal to 7 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. However, the size of individual carbon footprint tends to increase in proportion to their income. For example, this figure is approx. 13 tons for an average English while it is approx. 21 tons per person in the United States of America. In short, an average American produces the yearly footprint of a Nigerian only in a few days.

How to Measure Carbon Footprint?
Actually, it is not at all easy to calculate carbon footprint. Berners-Lee calls this “fundamental however impossible” measurement. For example, think about individual carbon cost of boarding a plane of a commercial airline company. On the other hand, the calculation is simple: We measure how much fuel a plane burns and how much greenhouse gas it emits during the flight and we divide this to passenger number. However, first class passengers cover a larger area and we also need to take how much cargo the plane carries into account. Due to this complexity in the calculation of carbon footprint, Berners-Lee accepts that “it would never be possible to make completely correct calculations” in such cases. However, the good news is this: Having an understanding about what carbon footprint is, i.e., awareness, is enough to decrease carbon footprint! 

Carbon Footprint in Simple Terms
A fruit you eat would have been brought to your local greengrocer most probably by a truck, so every food item produces a carbon footprint. Cooking requires gas that is a domestic greenhouse gas emission source. Did you buy an eco-friendly product which was delivered to your door? That product would be likely brought to your door with a vehicle that runs on fuel. Therefore, it is almost impossible to completely eliminate carbon footprint today! 

So How to Reduce Individual Carbon Footprint?
Within the next few years, it seems that our ability to reduce our carbon footprint would be determinant in our fight against climate change. Here are some tips to help you reduce your carbon footprint: 

• Prefer local products.
• Use sustainable transportation means such as public transportation, bicycle or walking and buy eco-friendly vehicles.
• Buy energy-saving devices.
• Explain the importance of reducing carbon footprint to the people around you to raise awareness.
• Reduce wastage: Use your packaging again, recycle it and if not possible dispose of them in appropriate recycle containers.

How to Reduce Our Carbon Footprint in The Global Scale?
As long as the world’s economic system is dependent on fossil fuel production, it seems that reducing carbon footprint in the global scale would not be possible. At this point, countries which invest in clean energy instead of fossil fuels and promote green energy have a potential to create a bigger impact than many of the individual wars against climate crisis. 

In short, our future depends on green energy!