Carbon Footprint Investigation

Source: https://climatefriendly.com/shop?gclid=CJHnq_-7u5YCFQIWFQod3SdALw

When calculating my air travel, this website said my emissions calculate to 1 Tonnes. My air travel was pretty much nonexistent, except for one trip to Disney World for my senior class trip. The calculator estimated that a flight from Philadelphia to Florida was 2029 miles. I found some of the facts that this website offered concerning air travel to be extremely interesting, particularly when it is mentioned that a round trip flight for only one person between the U.S. and the UK creates the same amount of emissions as driving a car for more than a year. A round trip flight from Europe to Asia-Pacific has the same emissions as driving a car for up to two years! It amazes me that my one, short trip to Disney World, although it is no flight to Europe, could be just as harmful as months of driving! I think its interesting to think in these terms, nowadays when some families try to save money they may consider driving to Disney World rather than flying. Not only could driving there possibly save money, but it could help save our atmosphere. 

http://www.carboncounter.org/?gclid=CKnelOi9u5YCFQNvHgodMQwtLQ

With this website, I first calculated my emissions while living in Washington DC. Because I do not use a car here, my calculated emissions were considerably low. According to this source, I emit 5.05 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. I emit only 4.07 metric tones per year in home electricity, where as the national average reaches 11.6 metric tones per year. While living in DC, I myself emit nothing in automobile emissions (!) as opposed to the national average of 5.02 metric tons per year. Of course this does not take into account the fact that I use a considerable amount of transportation to get around the city of to travel home (taxi cabs, trains, my parents driving me around, etc.). Unfortunately, my carbon footprint grew significantly (14.52 metric tons per year!) when I calculated my life at home in New Jersey. My use of electricity at home came very close to the national average of 11.16, climbing all the way up to 9.15 metric tons per year. My automobile use, a whopping 4.39 metric tones per year, came even closer to the national average of 5.02 metric tones per year. It startling to see such a contrast in these calculations. I think that the lower emissions in DC are partly caused by my growing sense of responsibility. Because I am forced to take care of my things, clean up after myself, etc., I seem to pay more attention to things like turning the tv off, unplugging my phone charger, printer, or camera charger. I've become more aware of my actions now that I don't have someone following behind me who would just turn off the tv or turn off the lights in the room. 

http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/

This carbon footprint calculator was by far my favorite. I found it to be the most comprehensive in several aspects. I calculated my household impact when living with my family of three in New Jersey, and found that my estimated greenhouse gas emissions are 48 tones of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, which is below the U.S. national average. The United States average of three people per household is about 80, and the world average is about 17 CO2 eq/year. I think that our carbon footprint is less than the national average because we have taken some steps to be energy efficient. Although we are by no means the most environmentally friendly family, we have taken steps such as buying an energy efficient Maytag washer and replacing some of our incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs. I was able to calculate my individual carbon footprint within my family household and found that my estimated emissions are only 13 tons of CO2 eq/yr, which is also below the national average of 27 tons of CO2 eq/yr. However, it is much higher than the world average of 5.5 tons of CO2 eq/yr. Although my emissions do not compare to the world average, I believe that my impact may be less severe than that of the national average because I have taken steps to recycle whenever possible. If I see a bottle lying in the middle of the street, I pick it up and bring it to the nearest recycling can. I have even gone as far as carrying emptying bottles in my purse just so I can wait to recycle them. Sometimes I even take my friends bottles to prevent them from carelessly throwing them out. I also am a vegetarian, and have been my whole life, which seems to offset my emissions. I have also tried to eat organic food, although at this time in my life its not necessarily economically feasible. 

Conclusions:

When I calculated my carbon footprint in all of these sources, I found that my lack of air travel really minimizes my carbon footprint. This makes me feel a little bit better about my lack of travel. I was actually introduced to the carbon calculator during my senior year of high school in our Global Seminar class. We were all astounded at our personal impact. Some of classmates and I found that our emissions were not as intense in comparison to the national average, but were much more severe when compared to the world average. This unfortunately seemed to show that our country is a leading source in the energy crisis. It also shows that as much as we clamor for change from our government, we ourselves might not be making a considerable amount of effort, ESPECIALLY in the eyes of those living in other countries. 

My family and I have begun to make attempts in offsetting our emissions. We now buy energy efficient appliances when our older appliances cease to function. However, we have not made dramatic changes like getting rid of all of our inefficient appliances and immediately replacing them with energy efficient ones. But I think that we are taking a serious, yet gradual step, in the right direction.