What’s YOUR Carbon Footprint – and Why Should You Care: Climate Mama News

Carbon footprint, ecological footprint, eco footprint, muddy footprint, what’s wrong with my footprint and why should I care? Statistics point to the fact that the average American’s carbon footprint is 5 times as big as the average “world citizen’s”. What do these statistics really mean?

Lets take the first question first. A persons “carbon footprint” is equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide a person uses annually, through everyday living, like heating your home, driving your car, the foods you eat and your lifestyle choices. Most of this carbon dioxide comes from the burning of fossil fuels, oil, coal and gas. There are a myriad of “calculators” available on the web whereby you simply plug in information about your life and the calculator comes up with a number equivalent to your carbon footprint. One you might want to check out, that has a calculator for adults, youth and kids is from the Zero Footprint Foundation.

As a yardstick, the average American produces approximately 20 tons of carbon dioxide in a year, the average world citizen, 5 tons. Carbon dioxide is one of the “worst” human caused greenhouse gases. It last hundreds of years in the atmosphere and human causes account for 80% of the carbon dioxide up in our atmosphere now.

Can you think of ways you can reduce your carbon footprint? Discuss it with the kids in your life and let us know!