Most of us like to play in the sand on the beach, and one of the most amusing things is seeing those footprints that we left on the beach. A good view and a good memory, right? I too enjoy that view of the tides coming near the footprints, and in a while, if they are very close to the shore, they will be washed away and gone forever. There is some similarity between our footprint on the seashore and that of our carbon footprint. Can you guess?
Well, some of you guessed it right...it is also the footprint that is left by us in the form of carbon. The difference is that our seashore footprints can be erased easily, while carbon footprints can't be erased easily. You know, recently, climate policies have focused on this particular footprint in various sectors like agriculture, transport, food habits, and whatever aspect you think of this carbon footprint is considered.
Some of us might be confused. We know vehicles emit carbon monoxide, and when we breathe, we exhale carbon dioxide gas, as well as some other gases due to various activities...but how does the food habit come into the picture? Let us learn what the carbon footprint is. So you will know the answer to that.
The carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gas emitted from an activity. Let us understand this from the perspective of food. Suppose, I am having one bowl of rice for lunch; then the greenhouse gas emitted to produce that one bowl of rice is my carbon footprint for my lunch.
This means the use of a tractor for any farm operations while producing rice, motors for irrigating, application of fertilisers, weeding, harvesting, milling, packaging, and transportation that are involved in producing my rice. Also remember that if I waste my rice, that also adds to my carbon footprint as decomposition releases greenhouse gases. In all these processes, whatever greenhouse gas is emitted, is my carbon footprint for lunch. Similarly, we can relate to different timescales, like a day, month, and year.
Likewise, you can compare your travel and all other activities. Now that we have learned about carbon footprints, there are some websites where we can track our carbon footprint to get an idea of how much we are contributing. Interested in knowing your carbon footprint?
Click on the shared links and check.
Small changes make a big impact. Let us be responsible for the carbon footprints we produce and also work on ways to reduce them to live in harmony on our planet.
Enjoy Life With Science
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