People are dying, the world is shrinking faster than it used to, animals are gone, and plants are all dead. We don't have anywhere to live, nothing to eat, we cannot survive. What am I talking about? These are not true! Well, not yet, but if we do not act fast, this will all turn into reality.
What is it about climate change? Do you really have any idea about it and do you know who the culprit is behind all the fuss? Carbon emissions. Yes, it's a footprint we cannot see but is slowly killing what you are eating, drinking, breathing right now. These carbon emissions destroy families, take away healthy living, and could destroy our beloved Earth. The carbon emissions from more than billions of people around the world starting from vehicle smokes, burning fuels, travelling, eating, each one of us is guilty of our own carbon footprint.
Source: Flickr, Creative Commons
However, we cannot totally get rid of these footprints since it serves a great role in our lifestyle especially those enjoying the comforts of city living. As such, the best way action plan for us is to drastically reduce our carbon footprint. Here are 10 ways to reduce your carbon footprint and even kids can help reduce carbon footprint, too.
Embrace the healthy lifestyle and know your footprint
Having a healthy lifestyle require exercise and proper diet, you have to know your personal footprint to know where you could adjust and reduce your footprint. Do a home check and notice that five things, housing, driving, electricity, gas, and meat are the most common producers of carbon footprint. You may also check the carbon calculator and know your priorities. Once you know your carbon footprint, you will be able to prioritize to reduce your footprint.
Pump up your legs
Walking is great for the entire body and does not require burning carbon emissions. Make time for walking with your two legs. Instead of spending time to ride a cab, why not work it out and take the time to utilize what you have through walking. You may also get your family, especially the kids to lead a sustainable home and lifestyle. In the long run, you will realize that walking helps a lot in saving you money while working out your body.
Ditch the Papers- Go online!
Papers require killing a huge number of trees. Newspapers and other printed materials should be reduced to save the trees. With the power of the internet, we could help these trees by reading the news online. You may be using energy for this device but that energy is less than the resources used up in making paper. It may be a complete change for most of the people, but the positive effect of this to the planet is enormous.
Unplug Everything
Unplugging may make life easier for you without having to worry about the extra electrical charges you might want to think again. These chargers or plugs of any appliances draw power from the outlet even when not used. Make it a habit to pull the plugs out when you don't need them to have a sustainable home. It's just a second to do yet save you pennies in just one pull.
Step on your Bike
Cars unlike other forms of electrified transportation have high carbon emissions. Electrified transportation such as buses or manual forms of transportation like the bike has low carbon emissions. Also, stepping on your bike is just like walking, it exercises your body without hurting the planet.
Go Green and Get Rid of Red Meat
Eat the produce made by the earth, go vegan. Accordingly, going vegan helps you save 3000 pounds of CO2. Moreover, serving red meat has a carbon intensity which is ten times higher than grains or fruit. In a research from the University of Cambridge, they have found that eating less red meat could lower the cases of chronic illnesses and even make the carbon footprint lesser by 28 million tons every year.
Going green helps reduce the carbon footprint and lead you to a sustainable lifestyle. Together with your kids, slowly introduce them to salads and other quick stir-fry veggie snacks. Remember, a family that eats healthy together, stays healthy together!
Stop Going for Bottled Water
The processes involved in packaging and delivering watered bottle require more energy than drinking tap water. Apparently, contaminants in the water are still present in some bottled water. Last 2013, the Natural Resources Defense Council made a report titled, 'Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype?' The report indicated that bottled water is not necessarily safer than tap water. Apparently, even bottled waters have contaminants as well.
Make Friends and Carpool!
There are websites online that offers car pool for errands, to work, and reduce the carbon emissions. Carpools save miles of the carbon footprint. You may even start your own carpool and even make new friends in the process.
Eat Everything you Buy
What you buy, eat everything up. Food is important and is not for us to waste and just throw away. The carbon emissions from making the food and from collecting the food wastes are exceptionally high. Taking away the wastes reduces the garbage in the world and lowers the carbon footprint.
Love the Sun!
Utilize the powers of the sun, open the windows and let the sun light your condo to reduce the energy that you use so you'll save your energy and money.
Sounds hard? Imagine a life without a planet to live in and you'll know that these are just easy compared to what the world and the future generation may face. There are numerous ways on how to maintain sustainability in your living space and how to keep the carbon footprint low while keeping up with city living. Teach your kids how to maintain a sustainable lifestyle and bring up the hope of the future generation.