It’s no hoax. Many of us qualify as a carbon bigfoot. And the carbon footprints we leave can be huge.
You’ve heard of a carbon footprint, right? It’s a measure of how much greenhouse gas our actions end up introducing into the environment. It’s a metaphorical footprint, a measure of our mark on our environment.
How Big Are Our Carbon Footprints?
You’d think we were all sasquatches. Bigfoot on the loose.
- The average US carbon footprint for an individual is 16 metric tons.
- The global average is 4 tons.
- To avoid a devastating 2 degree centigrade rise in earth’s temperature, we should be looking for an average rate of under 2 tons by 2050.
Carbon Footprint Calculator
So what’s the size of your carbon footprint?
A personal carbon footprint calculator is available from 8 Billion Trees.
The calculator takes you through a relatively simple questionnaire and calculates your results. The questionnaire takes into account where and how you live, commute, consume, etc. It then presents your footprint score, as well as a calculation of how many earths it would take to support that carbon footprint number if everyone had it.
So How’d You Do?
Staff at Green Success Stories averaged 10, which is sort of ok in comparison to the US average of 14, but still shocking for folks who are quite conscious of the dangers of global warming.
We heard the thud of our footsteps, and feared its echo causing an avalanche.
And combined with so many other echoing large footsteps of the carbon bigfoot species? Yikes.
What Can You Do?
Which leads us to two questions:
How did you do? – Take the test, and see for yourself!
What can you do? – We’ve looked at ways to technically reduce the production of CO2 and capture and store existing CO2.
But what can you do as an individual?
Well, there are the obvious ones – Fly less. Drive less. Consume less. Waste less.
But there’s also a great plan out there to offset our footprints with the most basic form of green success –
Plant more trees.
- Trees gather carbon from the atmosphere and put it back in the earth
- Trees improve habitats for plantlife, and especially wildlife (us human animals included).
Per The Guardian, tree planting has “‘has mind-blowing potential’ to tackle the climate crisis.”
The 8 Billion Trees project enables you to plant the exact amount of trees to offset your carbon footprint. The calculator indicates the amount of trees needed. The link provides the means to make it happen (without getting your hands dirty). Even if you are a carbon bigfoot, you can leave a mark that will feel proud to be seen.
The Right Kind Of Big Footprint
We speak of our impact on the environment in terms of a footprint. It’s our mark on the world.
And so many of us have reached the rank of carbon bigfoot.
But who said a footprint has to be a bad thing. Our footprint can be based on the positive mark we have made, a shapely arch on a sandy shore.
Planting trees to offset and reduce our carbon footprint will change the ugly thud of our footstep to a sweet and welcoming sound of a loved one walking toward you down the hall. It will change that ugly brown footstep to a footprint of big, beautiful green success. And we’d welcome seeing the mark of that kind of bigfoot any day.