Commuters can offset their carbon footprint –- Is there any possible way to reduce carbon emissions on a global scale?

Commuters can offset their carbon footprint and these statistics show that doing so can have a huge impact to putting a stop to climate change and global warming:

• Transportation accounts for 22% of energy use worldwide and 27% of carbon emissions.

• 96% of the energy used for transportation in major energy-consuming countries comes from petroleum fuels, which are a main cause of global climate change.

• Three fourths of transportation energy use originates from road vehicles, about two thirds is consumed by passenger mobility, and one-third is utilized by moving freight.

• Light vehicles accounted for 63% of transportation energy consumption in 2005.

But aren’t big businesses, industries, and rich countries reliant on fossil fuels the bigger culprits?  What are governments doing so that countries and businesses reduce their carbon emissions? 

The Story of Cap and Trade

Cap and trade, also known as carbon trading or emissions trading, is one of the leading proposed solutions to the global climate crisis. 

Under cap and trade schemes, individual governments or intergovernmental bodies, like the United Nations, set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions allowed within a given time period — that’s the cap. 

If a company plans to pollute more than their allotted limit, they can buy permits from companies that haven’t used all of theirs — that’s the trade.

Check out this video by the host of the Internet film sensation “The Story of Stuff”, Annie Leonard, explaining cap and trade and revealing the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals.  See how carbon offsets work in a global scale.

What we can do

As the video points out, our global economy runs on burning fossils fuels such that just about everything releases carbon.  

We might think that although ordinary commuters can offset their carbon footprint or even better, reduce carbon emissions, there really isn’t that much we can do if the factories that make our stuff, the ships and trucks that carry it around the world, our cars, buildings, and appliances keep coming from carbon-intensive sources.

This is true. But as end-consumers, our money and the way we consume stuff fuels this kind of destructive economy. 

The money we all spend on supporting polluters by buying their products or investing in these businesses can, for example, be diverted to supporting clean and renewable energy sources.  


Planting trees, buying organic produce, recycling, taking public transportation, biking or walking, and even lobbying for more efficient and cleaner public transportation are just a few examples of how commuters can offset their carbon footprint.

To know more about the story of how our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet, our communities, and our health, check out Annie Leonard's book.

Transitioning to a clean energy world will not be easy but our collective efforts will go a long way in taking us there.  We can all be more involved by learning how our lifestyles affect the environment, changing our consumerist mindsets, and taking small steps to make it happen.  With the impact that transportation has in global warming, it is well worth remembering that commuters can offset their carbon footprint.

References:

http://planetsave.com/2011/05/31 /transportation-energy-use-infographic/ 

http://www.storyofstuff.com/ capandtrade

Photo thanks to http://www.flickr.com/ photos/mikaelmiettinen/

Commuters can offset their carbon footprint –- What actions would you support to reduce carbon emissions?

Commuters can offset their carbon footprint and through little actions, help stop catastrophes that have been claiming lives for the past few years. 

Do you see (or have you felt) the catastrophic effects of recent natural disasters?

Do you want to do something in order to help?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then read on to see what we can do to help by controlling excessive carbon emissions. If you answered ‘no’ then read about typhoon Ketsana or hurricane Katrina  or the tsunami in Japan and ask if you want that to happen to you and your family. If not, then read on. 

What's happening?


The volume of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere has been increasing at a tremendous scale greater than our forests', oceans', or soils' ability to capture it.  

Heat from the sun reflected from the earth's surface does not exactly escape into space. It bounces back into our atmosphere and the captured warmth actually makes our planet habitable.


Carbon dioxide is a good thing but too much of it is bad.  Because of how we live and how fast we consume our natural resources, we contribute to the production of too much carbon dioxide and the degradation of too many natural resources that are supposed to keep its volume under control. 


A lot of media has come out about the issue of climate change and global warming.  Experts and scientists concur that there is almost absolute certainty that the planet has a temperature caused by human actions.  


The hurricanes, droughts, floods, heat waves, etc., that have recently been claiming millions of lives are just some of its catastrophic manifestations.  Something has to be done now, and very rapidly, because scientists and experts believe that we might not have enough time to put things under control.

So what should we do?

There are many things we can do to help stop global warming.  Carbon offsetting is one of these ways. It is a way of doing good by reducing emissions from one activity in order to make up for emissions you can’t reduce or avoid from another. But it will only make sense if we use them for behaviors that we cannot avoid rather than as a substitute for changes we can easily make.   

Carbon offsetting can be a little complicated at first especially for regular folks like you and me. Doing research is very important since a lot of carbon offsets are of questionable value. We ordinary folks can, instead, simply choose to avoid or reduce our carbon emissions whenever possible. 

The way we move around is one of the biggest ways that we impact our planet (most of the time, in a negative way).  If you spend a large portion of your day moving from one location to another, this article may be able to give some suggestions on what we can do in order to avoid or reduce the carbon footprint we produce when commuting.

Tip 1: Calculating your carbon footprint is the first step to going green. 


Carbon footprint is a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment, and in particular, on climate change. It relates to the amount of carbon dioxide produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation, etc. that heat up the planet or cause global warming.

I took my first carbon footprint test last April and for someone who refuses to own a car (yes, that’s even if my employer already offered me one) and chooses to take public transportation to get to places, I was a bit shocked when I realized my carbon footprint is still high compared to world average.   

Knowing how our actions and lifestyle affects the environment enables us to take the necessary actions to reduce any negative impact we cause. There are more sophisticated tools to calculate exactly how much emission we produce and how it affects our environment but the internet is filled with a lot of free tools to get us started.

I do believe that commuters can offset their carbon footprint and we can start doing so with an awareness of how much impact we are actually producing.

Tip 2: Walking, running, and biking are healthy ways to reduce our carbon footprint.

If you’d ask me for a tip on how to reduce weight or stay healthy, walking or running is definitely one tip I will give. You only not do your health a favor, you also make the planet happy.

I also know someone who owns a folding bicycle so he could bike from his house to the train station, fold the bike and get into the train, and then bike again from the station to his office.  Fun! And definitely a good idea! Not only does he reduce his emissions, he also gets to save on daily travel expenses, while staying fit!

Tip 3:  Live or stay near your place of work / study or drive less

I remember seeing a documentary on urban planning and one of the smart strategies they discussed to improve people’s lives in the city is to "force" people to stay near where they would normally be in a day, so that they would not need to use transportation. This not only reduces traffic, but I think, it is certainly a very smart way of reducing stress produced by daily commute!

Instead of spending 2 hours in traffic (and contributing to global warming), why not live near where you work or study? Not only will you earn more time to rest or do more productive stuff, it can also help reduce traffic in the streets.

There are more ways on how commuters can offset their carbon footprint or simply reduce or avoid it.  These include carpooling, proper scheduling of trips in a day, proper car maintenance, and a whole lot more.  David Bach’s book offers easy, useful tips on how to find carbon offsets so go and check it out as well.

Governments and businesses do have responsibilities to the environment to put a cap on carbon emissions and to either offset or totally reduce the negative impacts of how society lives.  However, I believe that little, simple actions like knowing your carbon footprint, walking or biking, and driving less also add up to more sustainable ways of going green.  It is important to remember that commuters can offset their carbon footprint.










Photo thanks to http://www. flickr.com/ photos/ricephotos/.