Our families carbon footprint update

It’s time to update you on my families progress in lowering our carbon footprint. Our family has been trying all kinds of new ways to save energy and lower our toxic output. One of my teachers introduced me to a great site http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/

This site allows you to not only input your gas and energy consumption but lets you list the foods that your household eats, where you get your food, how much your shop, what type of car you have and how often your drive.

So, our family is doing a little better but we are still making more of a footprint then we would like. We are currently releasing 32.6 tons of carbon per year!

Another cool aspect of this website is that they give you suggestions how to change your footprint. Our household eats a lot of meat so it suggests that we cut down our consumption by half. If every American did this they would save 645 million global acres of land (that is 484 million football fields!). It suggests that we use public transportation to get to work at least one day. If every American did this we would save over 352 million global acres! Another major contributor to our footprint is my husband commuting to work. If my husband were to carpool half of the month we would save $832 a year and save 1.517 pounds of co2. If everyone were to do this it would be a saving of $83,200,000,000 and 151,700,000 pounds of co2. WOW that is an amazing savings!

We are definitely going to implement these changes; I will update you guys on our progress after the new year!

-Amanda

**Update: After viewing this post Kristin asked, “Why would eating meat reduce your carbon footprint?” Such a great question!! Cattle are a huge producer of methane which is one of the top greenhouse gasses responsible for climate change. So, less meat consumption means less gas in the atmosphere. It is obviously a naturally occurring gas that has been around since the beginning of time. But the last hundred years or so as the demand for meat has increased the gas has too. Plus cattle are responsible for the increase of top soil loss and deforestation.  BUT, meat taste great and is a staple in many of our family’s diets. So if you don’t want to go vegetarian eat your meat responsibly. Try to cut one meat mean out of your weak and buy your meat locally.