Measure your carbon footprint to estimate your impact on climate change.
Your carbon emission, or carbon footprint, refers to your impact on greenhouse gas production and climate change. Though most people rely on transportation and electricity to live a comfortable life and perform their jobs effectively, many use these conveniences excessively, to the detriment of environmental health as well as personal health. In addition to measuring direct energy use, you must take eating and shopping habits into account when calculating your carbon footprint -- since many manufacturers use fuel to produce and ship their goods, buying local or producing your own food and clothing uses less energy, therefore reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Instructions
1. Collect all your energy bills over the course of a year.
2. Write down the mileage from your cars and motorbikes over the year, or log miles traveled on public transportation over the year. If your public transportation use is consistent throughout the year, you may multiply a day's travel by days worked or traveled per year rather than keeping a log over the course of a year.
3. Access a carbon footprint calculator. Some reliable calculators are available from the Cool Climate Network, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and Carbon Footprint.
4. Plug your personal information into the calculator's fields. You will need to provide information about your energy bills, car's make and model, mileage, use of public transportation, food and shopping practices, banking habits, recreation habits, recycling habits and the number of people in your household.
5. Enter your information. The calculator will return information about how many tons of greenhouse gases you are responsible for each year. The calculator will break down this information into categories such as home energy, transportation, food & diet and recycling & waste, so you can see if there is room for improvement in any particular area.
