I live in a small town, where the public transportation is limited. There are a few transit vans that run in the county, but you must schedule your rides in advance during certain hours. If you want to go anywhere out of county, you have to schedule one week in advance. There is a trolley that has a continuous route, but the entire route takes one hour, and the website does not say how many trolleys are on route. Anyways, you get my point. There is not a reliable and feasible way for me to use public transportation in order to cut down on my carbon footprint. I am saving up for a fully electric car one day, but for now I have to drive my 2002 Chevy Blazer. There are other ways and things to do to reduce your carbon footprint that don't have anything to do with cars. If you are in my situation, with little to no public transportation available, then here are some tips and tricks to reducing your personal carbon footprint. Buy Secondhand In today's culture we like to buy stuff. In fact, a lot of people won't buy anything secondhand or used because they feel some sort of pride in buying something new. Buying secondhand, however, is one of the most eco-friendly thing you can do. It takes energy to make things. It takes carbon to run factories and equipment. But if you buy secondhand, you are not using up any carbon or non-renewable resources that you would have if you bought something new. Check out Trash is for Tosser's post for more, here. Use and buy less plastic It takes carbon to make things, and it for sure takes carbon to make plastic. Anything plastic you see has used gallons of clean water, and carbon. If we use less plastic, not only will it help our oceans and sea creatures, but we will be using less carbon as a result. For more, check out this small factoid on plastic bags and bottles. Hang some clothes up to dry Line drying your clothes and sheets will save a lot of carbon per year. Even if you only line dry (or hang up your clothes to dry) half of your clothes, you will be saving a lot of carbon. Take a shorter shower Shortening your shower time by 1 minute can save up to 23kg of CO2 a year, according to this article. Buy and eat locally, and in season By buying your food locally, you will not only be helping out your fellow citizens, but you will also be reducing your carbon footprint. Local foods use less carbon because they do not have to be shipped to your location. Also, if you are in the grocery store, do not buy fruits or vegetables that are not in season, or are from far away. They were most likely flown in, causing a lot of carbon to be used. There are a lot of ways to reduce your carbon footprint besides personal transportation. Here is a great website you can use as a tool to help you understand carbon footprints, how to reduce or offset them, and how you can make an impact. I would definitely recommend checking it out. Transportation is a still huge part of carbon emissions and I would also recommend you try to reduce transportation emissions by carpooling, flying less, or saving up for an electric/hybrid car when you can. If you can't, then that is okay because there are other ways to reduce emissions. Happy reducing!
0 Comments
You might be wondering how you can start living your life with the Earth in mind. It’s most likely overwhelming. Refusing plastics, eating more sustainably, solar power, carbon footprints, emissions, global warming... where do you start? How do you get to a place where you are creating a lower impact on our planet? 1. It’s going to take time, and you won’t be perfect.work If living low-impact was easy and quick, we’d probably all have made the switch by now. But it’s not. It will take time for you to switch out your habits and thoughts. If you chose to start replacing every single use plastic in your bathroom right now, you will be wasting the product that those plastics had in them. Wait for things to run out before you replace. Mistakes will happen, and you won't be perfect. You might forget to ask the waiter for no straw, and your drink comes out with a straw in it. No one is perfect, and mistakes are completely understandable. As long as you keep with it, understand that you’re not going to be perfect, and keep a conscious effort, you will do just fine. 2. Start by recognizing how much waste you produceokay Go a couple of days noticing how you live your life. Notice how much single-use plastic you use. How much meat do you eat? Notice how much Styrofoam you use. Do you leave the lights on when you leave a room? Do you put plastic in the nearest bin, or do you hold on to it until you can find a recycling bin? Start by noticing your habits, so that you know which ones to fix, and which ones to keep improving upon. You might be surprised at how much you are doing already, or you could be surprised at how far you have to go.
10/17/2018 What You Should Know About the 100 Companies that are Responsible for 71% of Carbon EmissionsRead NowJust 100 Companies are responsible for 71% of carbon emissions worldwide, according to a 2017 report. As consumers, if we want them to stop producing so much emissions, we need to stop investing in them. So let’s start by looking at who those companies are. The top “company” responsible is China’s use of coal. They are responsible for 14.3% of carbon emissions worldwide. Next is the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Aramco, who are responsible for 4.5%. Gazprom OCO, a Russian natural gas company, produces 3.9%. For the rest of the companies, see the tabs below.
<
>
4. National Iranian Oil Company- 2.3% 5. ExxonMobil Corp- 2.0% 6. Coal India- 1.9% 7. Petroleos Mexicanos, Permex (a petroleum company)- 1.9% 8. Russia's use of Coal- 1.9% 9. Royal Dutch Shell PLC (the gas station)- 1.7% 10. China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC)- 1.6% 11. BP PLC (the gas station)- 1.5% 12. Chevron Corp (oil industry company)- 1.3% 13. Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA)- 1.2% 14. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.- 1.2% 15. Poland Coal- 1.2% 16. Peabody Energy Corp (private sector coal company)- 1.2% 17. Sonatrach SPA (oil and gas)- 1.0% 18. Kuwait Petroleum Company- 1.0% 19. Total SA (oil and gas)- .9% 20. BHP Blliton Ltd (mining and petroleum)- .9% 21. ConocoPhillips (oil and natural gas)- .9% 22. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Petrobas (petroleum)- .8% 23. Lukoil OAO (natural gas, petroleum, etc.)- .8% 24. Rio Tinto (mining)- .7% 25. Nigerian National Petroleum Corp- .7% 26. Petroliam Nasional Berhad, Petronas (petroleum)- .7% 27. Rosneft OAO (oil company)- .7% 28. Arch Coal Inc.- .6% 29. Iraq National Oil Co- .6% 30. Eni SPA (oil and gas)- .6% 31. Anglo American (mining company)- .6% 32. Surgutneftegas OAO (oil and gas)- .6% 33. Alpha Natural Resources Inc (coal and mining)- .5% 34. Qatar Petroleum Corp- .5% 35. PT Pertamina (oil and natural gas)- .5% 36. Kazakhstan Coal- .5% 37. Statoil ASA- .5% 38. National Oil Corporation of Libya- .5% 39. Consol Energy Inc (coal)- .5% 40. Ukraine Coal- .5% 41. RWE AG (electricity and natural gas)- .5% 42. Oil & Natural Gas Corp Ltd- .4% 43. Glencore PLC (trading and mining)- .4% 44. TurkmenGaz (gas)- .4% 45. Sasol Ltd (energy and chemical company)- .4% 46. Repsol SA (global energy company)- .3% 47. Anadarko Petroleum Corp- .3% 48. Egyptian General Petroleum Corp- .3% 49. Petroleum Development Oman LLC- .3% 50. Czech Republic Coal- .3% The Carbon Major Report does not specifically list the last 50 companies, but does notate that those companies are responsible for 7.4% of emissions worldwide. If you've seen all the companies, I'm sure you've noticed a trend. If not, then I'll go ahead and tell you. They're all mainly oil, gas, petroleum, and other non-renewable energy companies and corporations. Something I noticed while looking up some of those companies, is that they things like "We're one of the top incomes for the government" or "Look at our sustainability report." If our top polluters and carbon emissions are coming from non-renewable energy sources, the most definite answer to cutting their emissions is investing into renewable sources like solar, wind, and water. On a large scale, you as a person don't control what energy the world runs on. But you can control how much carbon you use in the world. Here are some things you can do to lower your carbon footprint:
Here are some links and articles that you might find helpful if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, and slowly stop supporting those 100 companies that are ruining our Earth.
It turns out that just 100 companies are responsible for producing 71% of carbon emissions according to this 2017 Carbon Majors Report. These companies have produced 71% of worldwide emissions from 1988 to 2015. After the UN's recent report that we don't have much time left to save our environment from destruction, the Carbon Major Report has been unearthed and talked about more publicly.
But here's where I start to disagree. Yes, we have to hold those companies accountable. Yes they are a huge part of the problem. But companies want to make money. Normally, if something will make a company richer, they will choose that option, as opposed to something that won't make as much money for them. That means that they must be using more emissions because it means they will make more money. We, as consumers, have the choice and power to make them choose a more eco-friendly route. If we stop investing in those companies, they will want to change so that we will start investing in them again. Yes, we can blame 100 companies for 71% of emissions in the world. We can and will because it is a true fact. What we cannot do, though, is ignore the fact that there is still 29% of the world's emissions not included in that. And we cannot ignore that the report is from 2017. I doubt those companies have cut down on their carbon emissions. Its up to us make them reduce their carbon emissions or else lose money. If they won't listen to the green of the Earth maybe they'll listen to the green of money. Now, if you want to stop supporting those companies, go here.
We probably have all heard about the UN's recent report on the environment at this point, so let me unpack it all for you. If the environment continues in pattern to warm 1.5 degrees by 2040, millions of people will be dead. Yes, people will die from climate change. Oceans will rise, temperatures will be skyrocketing or plummeting, there will be switches between droughts and floods. Our food supplies will be suffering, and multitudes of people will die from starvation, fire, flooding, etc. Many, many species will die, coral reefs will be dead, our environment will be suffocating. Now, here comes the scary part. This is the BEST-case scenario. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) did not put out their study to say, "Hey here is where we are headed, and we need to change it." They put out their study to say, "The Earth can only take another 1.5 degrees of warming. Anything above 2 degrees warmer is genocide to both the Earth and everyone on it." They're telling us that they want the Earth to warm a maximum of 1.5 degrees, because we can't handle anything else. They're advocating that we only let the Earth warm 1.5 degrees so that it doesn't get to 2. So yes, it's worse than it seems. It's horrifying, and overwhelming. I've personally not been able to think about it much this past week because I physically can't. What has been even more horrifying is the reactions this study has gotten. I've seen so many people point the blame towards the 100 companies that are responsible for 71% of carbon emissions, as a way of saying it's not their problem to worry about. I've heard people say "Is it really gonna fix anything?" or "There's nothing we can do." People will die of climate change. The Earth will be sick, and a lot worse than ever before. But we need to make sure that it doesn't die. I personally don't want to die in my 50s because in my teenage years I didn't fight for the Earth and everyone on it. I hope that other people feel this way, and want to change for their lives and the Earth's. That's why I'm typing this out right now. We need to change, and change quickly. Or else. Inspired by this article by the NY Magazine.
|
Details
Categories
All
Archives
December 2018
Ally
Just looking out for the Earth and everyone who lives on it. |