Greenhouse Gases and our Carbon Footprint

Global Foot Print!

Carbon footprint is the measure of total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly or indirectly by a person, organisation, event or product. They are the gases we produce during our everyday lives just from commuting, living in a house, watching TV ect, all of these aspects of our lives effect the planet we live on. I did the WWF carbon footprint calculator (footprint.wwf.org.uk); my results can be seen in Figures 1 and 2. My results show my carbon footprint score which is 2.29 Planets and seen as we only have 1 this is a poor score.

Figure 1. My score for my Carbon Footprint

Figure 2. A break down of my score

On a global scale in Figure 3 you are able to see visually the greenhouse gases being produced by human activity in 2004 and their broken down economic activity. Although these figures are slightly out of date they still show how much of an effect we are having on the planet and what we are doing with its raw materials and the effect these are having on the planet when we use them (www.epa.gov).

Figure 3. Greenhouse gases being creased my human activity in 2004

In 2008 the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre produced a graph indication the emissions given off from the burning and use of fossil-fuels between 1900 to 2008 (Please see Figure 4). As you can see from the graph emissions shot up from the 1950s and continue to increase (www.epa.gov). I believe they will continue to get higher until we run out of fossil-fuels and find something else to use instead.

Figure 4. Graph indicating the increase in use of fossil-fuels since 1900-2008

There are different types of carbon footprints. Three of which are Organisational, Value chain and Product carbon footprint. Organisational emissions cover the whole company from erecting buildings and the carbon footprint that is formed from that to the energy these buildings use every day. The Value chain includes that of the supplier and consumer, the emissions that are out of the organisation. Finally the Product carbon footprint which is the carbon footprint the product itself produced. From the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing through to actual use in the home ect to the point it gets recycled or disposed of.

In conclusion if we do not do something about how we are living we are going to carry on destroying our planet. If greenhouse gases continue to increase our climate will also continue to change in a negative way that will sooner or later begin to affect us all (Payne, 2014). The only people who can make a change and stand up for this planet is you. We need to decrease our greenhouse gases and make a serious change to the way we treat this planet.

References

Environmental Protection Agency. (2013). Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data. Available: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/global.html. Last accessed 15th November 2014.

Payne, J. (2014). The Real Case against Activist Global Warming Policy. Independent Review. 19, 265-270.

WWF-UK. (2006). How Big is Your Environmental Footprint?. Available: http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/. Last accessed 15th November 2014.