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6 Highly Effective Ways To make Your Carbon Footprint Smaller

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6 Highly Effective Ways To make Your Carbon Footprint Smaller

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The first highly effective way to make your carbon footprint smaller is to change your diet. Switching to a vegan or vegetarian diet can cut your food carbon footprint in half. In fact, food production is responsible for about 25 percent of the greenhouse-gas emissions heating up the planet and meat has a bigger footprint than fruits and vegetables mainly because it takes more energy to produce. so, if you just stop eating meat and dairy then you can make your carbon footprint a lot smaller than it is now.

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Another thing that you could do is have a limited amount of kids. The more kids you have the more carbon you emit when you suddenly have to take them all to different schools and sports events. The more food you will have to buy the more water and energy you will have to use. It is understandable that you may want to have 3 or maybe even 5 kids but if you want to keep your carbon footprint small then its a better choice to only have one or two kids instead of 5.

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Another method that I will present is to buy energy efficient appliances and solar panels for your house.  You can go a long way in lowering your carbon footprint by replacing utility power with clean electricity from solar panels. Solar panels are not only a great way to save money on electric bills but they also help reduce your carbon footprint by a significant amount depending on the size and contents of your home. Solar power systems take clean, pure energy from the sun. Installing solar panels on your home helps combat greenhouse gas emissions and reduces our dependence on fossil fuels.

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Another way to reduce your carbon footprint is to buy things from thrift stores instead of buying them brand new. Doing this you minimize the trash that goes into landfills and spend less money. But landfill space isn't the only thing you save, Emissions from production and distribution are eliminated as well. It also benefits your bank account because things in thrift stores are usually only about a third of the price of the same item if you were buying it brand new. Also many thrift stores help the needy and the homeless. http://www.trueactivist.com/9-reasons-to-shop-second-hand/

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You can also invest in an electric car. Electric cars eliminate smog, improve public health, and reduce ecological damage. Tesla is coming out with a cheaper more affordable model of an electric car . If you get one it will most likely pay itself back because you wont have to spend money on gas.

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Another thing that you can do is to stop using your dryer. Instead of using a dryer you should hang your wet clothes out to dry. Doing this will surely lower your carbon emissions and save you lost of money. http://hangerstation.com/blog/practical/the-benefits-of-hang-drying-clothes-vs-using-a-dryer

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My carbon footprint is fairly large compared to the two other families. I think that the fist family listed has a smaller carbon footprint because they live in an apartment where as I live in a detached home. Also they are vegetarian and I eat a descent amount of meat. They also don't waste a lot of food and I do waste quite a lot food. Also, they don't really spend money on health and beauty products but spend about 20 dollars a week.

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My carbon footprint is also a lot larger than the second family listed. I think that this because I don't really do a lot to save energy or water where that family does not waste any food or water. Also they have 5 people living in a one bedroom apartment and I have four people living in a 5 bedroom house. I also travel in a plane a lot and we keep our house really warm in the winter and cool in the summer. So their lifestyle is very different from mine.

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As you can see my carbon footprint was reduced about 100% with the listed methods of reduction. I also think that your footprint would be reduced by even more as long as you don't fly long distance a lot like I do. ( Most people don't fly to Europe twice a year like I do)