Sunday, May 17, 2009

What Is A Carbon Footprint

By Amanda J Smith

The term Carbon Footprint is commonly used for the impact which the activities of the human beings have on the environment.

The Carbon Footprint basically relates to our activities and the green house gases that are released as a result of our everyday activities. These gases ultimately contribute towards increasing the greenhouse effect, and hence the climate of not only a region but the entire planet is affected and the health and survival of the planet is put at stake.

A few of the activities that have the straight and most important effect by the discharge of greenhouse gases are the burning of fossil fuel for energy use, electricity and a variety of electrical machine, transportation, and also heating.

The Carbon footprint essentially constitutes two parts, i.e, the main footprint and the secondary footprint. The main footprint is the gauge that is used for activities that produce direct carbon dioxide. These activities mostly comprise burning of fuels, or transport etc. The fuels are burned in our daily lives for the reason of house as well as business energy use.

On the other hand, the secondary footprint is the measure for an entire lifecycle. This means that somewhere in the manufacture of these products, there is the emission of carbon dioxide as a result of an eventual breakdown. This means that the production of these products has a direct impact on the environment. The more we buy and consume such products, the more is the demand for their production, and ultimately there are more harmful emissions in the environment.

There are several online carbon footprint calculators accessible. Carbon footprint calculator is fundamentally a device which gives you a clear idea about the effect you are making on the atmosphere with your lifestyle. This is possible to estimate because each activity has certain importance in terms of the carbon footprint, and weights are assigned to your activities and in the end you are able to know the effect that is generated in the atmosphere on behalf of your everyday life.

As the inhabitants of this planet, it is important for all of us to remember the concept of the Carbon footprint and take necessary steps to reduce the negative impact of our activities on the planet. There are many different steps that can be taken and efforts that can be made on the individual level to bring about a positive effect on the future of our planet.

Electrical devices including computer, TV, DVD player, etc must be turned off when they are not being used. The water heating and the central heating must be turned down whenever you think that you don't call for it. If probable, you must avoid using the clothes dryer. These are some of the numerous steps that you can take to perk up the Carbon Footprint.

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