REDUCING CARBON FOOTPRINT

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HOW TO REDUCE CARBON FOOTPRINT OR EMISSION

   India, being home to 9 out of 10 world’s Most Polluted cities, is facing a serious pollution problem. To quantify this problem, the term “carbon footprint” comes to play. It is defined as the amount of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide(CO2) , released into the atmosphere by a particular human activity. In one way or other, everyone contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions either by the way we travel, the food we eat, the amount of electricity we consume and many more. There is almost 10-fold increase in human’s carbon footprint since 1961.

   Reducing carbon Footprint should be the foremost of our responsibilities and contribution towards environment. Every person can do one’s bit to alleviate emissions. Here are some of the most effective means to reduce one’s carbon footprint:

•  – For short distances, one should either walk or ride bicycle to avoid carbon emissions completely. Similarly, Carpooling and public transportation should be encouraged to reduce CO2 emissions

•  – Energy efficient appliances should be used to reduce CO2 emissions. For instance, CO2 emissions from traditional incandescent bulb is 8 times more than that of LED bulb. Similarly, refrigerators and ACs with better ‘Star Ratings’ can help bring down the emissions

•  – Forests are called the lungs of our planet for a reason. A tree absorbs kilos of CO2 from environment every year. More and more plantation drives should be carried out by local communities and deforestation should be discouraged

•  – 3R’s principle of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle should be followed. Reducing the need to buy new products, encouraging reusing existing ones as well as recycling the used ones can considerably bring down our emissions. For instance, recycling one tonne of glass bottles prevents more than 300kg of CO2 emission

•  – Cleaner fuels like CNG, LPG, hydrogen fuels, electric vehicles can bring down CO2 emissions from transportation tremendously

•  – Products with loads of unnecessary plastic packaging should be discouraged as the waste generated fills the landfill sites and pollutes environments

•  – Going solar, as outlined by government’s recent policies, will go a long way in bringing down CO2 emissions

•  – Lastly, switching off lights and other appliances when not required is the least we can do to contribute towards environment

   It is each and everyone’s responsibility to implement these little acts in our daily lives to do our bit for the environment. It will go a long way to reduce the damage being done to our environment and protecting it for the future generations.