What Is A Carbon Footprint?

I had a bit of fun mentioning that the word (or phrase, to be more specific) Carbon Footprint "won" an honourable mention in the Macquarie Dictionary 2007 Word of the Year. Now we'll look at the greenhouse effect that the carbon footprint concerns as we use it as a way of measuring the carbon emissions that makes up just one of the greenhouse gases that we humans are pumping into the atmosphere at a frightening rate.

I decided to investigate and found out quite a bit about what's being attempted around the world to try to offset and reduce greenhouse gases and the greenhouse effect.

So on to the question that adorns the title of this post: What Is A Carbon Footprint?

A carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels. It is measured in tonnes and can be calculated on a personal, business, country-wide and global basis.

A carbon footprint is made up of two parts:

the primary footprint which involves all the things we use that directly burn fossil fuels such as electricty use, driving a car, travelling by plane,

the secondary footprint which involves all the manufactured things we buy and use - food, clothes, sport and leisure.

My Carbon Footprint

Naturally enough, I calculated my personal carbon footprint by visiting the Carbon Footprint site and going through the Carbon Footprint Calculator. The calculator takes you through a series of questions after you've entered your home country. You answer questions in categories such as Home, Flight, Car, Motorbike, Bus & Rail and Secondary. Having a rough idea of how many kWh of electricity you burn in a year and how many kilometres your car does annually will enable a more accurate calculation.

So how did I do? Well, I suppose like the majority of us I could do with some work but I was surprised that I was well under the national average for Australia. My Carbon Footprint came in at 9.224 tonnes while the country average is at 16.3 tonnes. The carbon footprint calculator goes on to say that, in order to combat climate change the worldwide average needs to drop to 2 tonnes and it is currently at 4 tonnes.

The idea behind learning about your carbon footprint are twofold. First, if you're aware of the extent of the damage you're doing you're more likely to actively try to make your footprint smaller. Second, there are initiatives and strategies in place that allow you to offset your carbon footprint. If you take up some of these initiatives you are effectively reducing your footprint.

This is a seriously worthwhile exercise so in the next couple of posts I'll have a closer look at the two ways we can go about slashing the size of our carbon footprints. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to calculate your carbon footprint and perhaps become a little more aware of the greenhouse gases you produce and the part you play in the greenhouse effect.