Two Day Magazine

Decrease Your Impact on the Planet...

The terms carbon footprint and greenhouse gas have been heard with some regularity now that the majority of the population has come to see climate change as a problem needing addressed.  With a problem as big as climate change, people may be led to believe that the solutions to reverse this trend is beyond them, when in fact, it is quite possibly the lives of everyday Americans that can potentially save the planet.  The first step to doing this is by explaining what exactly a carbon footprint is and what people can do to decrease it.
           
A carbon footprint is the measure of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere by the daily activities and lifestyle of a particular person.  This is determined by the type of car a person drives to their amount of air travel.  Asking a person to forgo that trip to the Bahamas for a more environmentally friendly trip to the local park would be ideal, but such requests are obviously going to fall on deaf ears, and understandably so.  A person does not have to completely change who they are to become more eco-friendly. However, there are steps that people can take to decrease their carbon footprint and help reverse the trend of global climate change.
           
One interesting way to decrease your carbon footprint is to buy carbon credits.  While some people believe that carbon credits are only for corporations, they can also be used by ordinary households.  There are many websites available that allow for electricity and gas to be offset.    http://www.greenenergychoice.com/ is one in particular that allows the consumer to offset their electricity, gas, or both.  You type in your monthly bill and the website calculates the amount of credits needed to offset that amount.  Prices start at $9.99 a month for one credit and then increases proportionally with the amount of credits needed.  An interesting feature about Green EnergyChoice is that you can choose from which source you want your offsets to come from, be it wind, biomass, or hydropower.
           
Another way to decrease your carbon footprint, while more drastic than carbon offsets, is to think twice about your next choice in automobile.  In this time of higher gas prices, buying a hybrid may cost more initially, but you will get more for your money in the long run.  It might take years, but you also get the satisfaction of decreasing your carbon footprint.  As technology advances, the price of hybrids will decrease as their popularity increases.
          
If more people take action against climate change, then corporations will see that this is not just a passing trend and will start to take action to control their own carbon footprints.  If a person wants to know their exact carbon footprint there are many useful internet tools to calculate it.  A particularly easy to use one can be located here: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx Check yours out, twoday! And, besides, what's sexier than a partner that cares about nurturing the world around them?