Greenhouse Emissions - Paper Example

Introduction

Greenhouse emissions produced by human activities impact our climate. The more we consume by transportation, travel, household energy, and purchasing items; the more greenhouse emissions are produced. A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced directly (through the burning of fossil fuels) and indirectly (from the products we use) each year. This is expressed in tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Calculate your carbon footprint.Calculate your household carbon footprint on these two websites (include only family or significant others, not roommates in this calculation):Website 1: https://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/

Home Energy Emission__37,057________ lbs

Transportation Emissions__ 9,520________ lbs

Waste Emissions__2003________ lbs

Estimated Emissions_ 48,580_________ lbs

(convert Estimated Emissions from lbs to tons)

Estimated Emissions __ 24.29________ tons (CO2)

Website 2: http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/

Travel _ 0.0019_________ %

Home_ 0.0031_________ %Food ___0_______ %Goods ___0.0003_______ %Services ___0.0003_______ %

Estimated Emissions __56________ tons (CO2)

Questions

How do the estimated emissions compare to other US households?

The estimated emissions of our household are a bit lower than the US households average. The US households is 25.8505 compared to ours which is 24.29.

How do the estimated emissions compare to households worldwide?

The average household carbon emissions per person worldwide as of 2008 is 8.25 tons whereas for our household it is 4.858 tons. The statistics would look much grimmer in 2018 due to the increase in consumerism.

Which activity creates your largest carbon footprint?

The activity that creates our largest carbon footprint is transport. Transport contributes approximately 4.76 tons of carbon emissions in our household.

List five things you and your family can do to reduce your overall carbon footprint.

The things we can do as a family include;

Carpooling On top of saving money, it will reduce overdependence on our cars hence reducing fuel consumption and emissions.

Renewable energy Use of solar technology for heating and electricity will also reduce our carbon footprint

Lighting We would replace our incandescent lighting for energy star ones.

Recycling- Recycling of common household trash would also reduce carbon emissions.

Washing clothes manually and hanging on a line instead of using the dryer and washing machine.

Roundtable discussion on your estimated emissions, solutions, and the related questions. (20% of grade)

Our estimated emissions paint a picture of a comfort zone that has been brought about by an indifference towards environmental issues. Being not too far away from the total US average emissions, it shows that it is, in fact, a common trend among many US families. One of the major contributors to the emissions is commuting especially using our cars which on average release 4.76 tons in the atmosphere for our family. Carpooling or use of public transportation can cut this by almost 50%, because then we will not need our cars, hence decongesting the roads and reducing the number of carbon emissions.

The home energy was our 2nd most carbon footprint contributor, our electric plan does not include any savings on carbon emissions. Our solution was to intermittently use our washing machine so as to save on electricity and put our dryer out of commission permanently by using lines to hang our clothes. Our lighting system will also have to be revised, instead of the 100 watt incandescent light bulbs, we will use the energy saver bulbs. Our house heating will have to be changed to solar. By getting rid of one of the cars, we will install a solar panel that is connected to the housing heating system.

A good trait is that we recycle most of our waste such as magazines, newspapers, old cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles. So our waste management is not that bad but a lot can be improved. Our waste can be put in a canister and the gas harnessed for energy or cooking. That will cut our overdependence on natural gas and other heating oils. On traveling, we can limit our tourism to local places or nearby states.