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Week 10 Assignment SCI 201
Addressing Climate Change:
Individual and Global Solutions
Options to Reduce Individual Carbon Footprint
According to the results of the calculator, my carbon footprint totals up to 10.96 metric tons of C02 each year. It would take 3.99 hectares of tropical forest to neutralize 10.96 metric tons. (Conservation International, 1) In order to reduce this footprint, I am considering the following two tips: change your thermostat and clean your inbox. According to the carbon footprint calculator, by changing my thermostat, I would be reducing my carbon footprint by .06 metric tons. (1) What makes this option feasible for me would be that I constantly have my air conditioner running. By adjusting the temperature, especially when I'm
not home, I can reduce my carbon footprint. I think that the only barriers would be the things in my house that wouldn't do well in different temperatures, like house plants. According to the carbon footprint calculator, by cleaning out my inbox and junk mail I'm subscribed to, I can reduce my carbon footprint by .07 metric tons each year. What makes this feasible for me is that I am subscribed to so many newsletters. If I just go and unsubscribe to a lot of them, and clear out my junk mail, daily, it will make a difference. The only barriers to implementing this option is that it's time consuming. And it takes a while to delete mail or go in and unsubscribe to things. Between changing my thermostat and cleaning my email, I feel that changing my thermostat would be best for me. While cleaning my email would save .01 tons annually, adjusting my thermostat would be more convenient for me. It's a push of a button, as opposed to getting my laptop and going through my email. I can get easily distracted in my email and end up doing more harm than good.
Policies to Reduce the Effects of Climate Change
Policy Set 1 By increasing the transportation and building and industry, this helped keep the temperate increase below 2 degrees (En-ROADS, 2). By keeping growth at its lowest, this also helps(En- ROADS, 2). According to EN-ROADS, by reducing the land, food and industry emissions this will help keep it just at 2 degrees(2). Now, if we were to set carbon removal to high growth, we bring our 2 degrees down to adding only 1.7 degrees (En-ROADS, 2). As always, there are drawbacks. We read in the Webtext that by trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we increase the amount of resources needed (Soomo Learning, 3). The benefits of these changes are that the temperature is below our 2 degree goal. I think that gives us a little more room to make changes. Policy Set 2
Sources
- Conservation International. No date. Carbon Footprint Calculator. https://www.conservation.org/carbon-footprint-calculator
- En-ROADS. No date. Policy Simulator. https://en-roads.climateinteractive.org/scenario.html
- Soomo Learning. 2021. Our Living World. https://www.webtexts.com
