Carbon is a very important element to all living things on
earth as well as the fuels that we use for transportation. The carbon cycle is a process in which carbon
cycle’s through the atmosphere, ocean, soil and plant life creating a balance
on earth that stabilizes our atmosphere and helps sustain life on earth. Carbon from the atmosphere is taken in by plants. Plants are then consumed by animals. Then through decomposition of poop or
decaying non-living things, carbon is returned to the atmosphere. Carbon is also stored in rocks and released
from weathering over time. When carbon
is captured in the atmosphere at rates higher then natural balance of earths
cycles, the planet heats up. As humans
burn fossil fuels, coal and increase commercialized agriculture, carbon enters
our atmosphere at alarming rates and stays there capturing solar energy that
bounces off our planet increasing global temperatures.
There is a site that will help calculate your global
footprint. I used it and my footprint
came out to 3.5 earths, which means that I am on average using 2.5 times the
amount of earth’s resources to sustain everyone. This is horrible and if everyone had a
footprint like this then we would be in serious trouble. Well to be honest we are in serious trouble
because others out there have even worse of a footprint. Mine was so high due to the daily driving I have
to do for work. Try out this site or
another (link posted below) and see what your footprint is. There are areas where everyone can improve. Some improvements that I can do is drive less,
recycle more, buy in bulk and take shorter showers just to name a few things to
lower my footprint.
There is a Ted Talk video that talks about climate change and
some ways to help avoid a 4-degree climate increase. Some of the ways discussed were lowering our
emissions, lowering energy demands and lower our standard of living. Making changes now will have a less of an
impact in years to come instead of doing nothing and having to make more drastic
changes to deal with the climate change implications from our consumption
issues that lead to global warming. It’s
a worthwhile video that I suggest taking a few minutes out of your day and watch.
