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Sustainable lifestyles: What is your carbon footprint?

December 17, 2011 By

Your carbon footprint is a measurement of the impact you have in terms of greenhouse gas emissions your life is producing.

Many of the things you do daily are sending greenhouses gases into the atmosphere and increasing the environmental burden the earth is carrying. Whenever you drive your car or motorbike, travel in an aeroplane or turn on the gas hob or barbecue you are sending CO2 into the air. If you heat your house by gas, or your electricity is generated by burning natural gas or other fossil fuels the outcome is the same.
Per capita figures for carbon emissions show that whilst an American sends a yearly total of some 20 tons of carbon dioxide into the air whilst someone in the UK is responsible for around 10 tons. It may be obvious to use that folks in the USA have a potential to cut greenhouse gases at a far higher rate than in the UK, but that is no excuse not to minimise our individual carbon footprint. This is not particularly difficult.

Here are some effective ways:

Cut down on your petrol/diesel usage. Drive a more economical car or share your drive to work (this can save a great deal) bicycle to work or even walk or take the bus.

Generate your own electricity and reduce waste by adding solar panels for your home, installing a wind turbine or a ground source heat pump, collecting rainwater for reuse and recycling household waste.

Reduce your energy usage in the home. There are simple ways. Don’t use your oven for only one item. Bung in an extra pie or casserole and freeze for later (use an energy efficient chest freezer)

You can find out your carbon footprint by using the calculator on the WWF website. Try it. You may really want to change afterwards!

Filed Under: Environmental Issues Tagged With: , ,

Get rid of carbon dioxide in the ocean?

December 14, 2011 By

Most countries have agreed to set a target to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. One idea being investigated by scientists is reduce carbon dioxide by a process called carbon sequestration into the oceans. One idea is to try to increase the usual levels of uptake of carbon dioxide by microscopic and unicellular plants collectively called phytoplankton. This would involve, so one theory goes, of seeding the world’s ocean’s with iron (a food for the plankton) which would hopefully increase the productivity of these plants and enable those tiny plant organisms at or near the sea surface to absorb more carbon dioxide so taking it from the atmosphere and storing it in the ocean. There are many doubts about what impact this would have on the marine life and ecosystems and whether it will actually do what the theory predicts.

A second idea of using the oceans for sequestration of carbon dioxide is to inject liquid carbon dioxide into the pecan deeps at 1500m and store it there for several hundred years or for longer periods if put at depths of 300m or more where the density of the liquid carbon dioxide is greater than that of water. This would create a submarine lake in a trench on the seabed, so scientists postulate. There is also the prediction that solid carbon dioxide blocks should be able to be produced which would therefore sink to the bottom of the ocean. There is much concern over the impact of such actions.

Filed Under: Environmental Issues Tagged With: , ,

Sustainable Lifestyles- Grow your own food

December 14, 2011 By

When I mention growing my own vegetables to people they say “I couldn’t do that because I haven’t a garden” I tell them they don’t need a garden. People without gardens and the very basic amount of space can grow vegetables in the same way I do. I have to say, though, that vegetables do need some sun. Here are ways to grow veggies without a garden:
• I grow potatoes in potato grow bags. They are actually better than being in the ground as they used to get munched, which they don’t in the bag. You need 4- 5 spuds per bag and these will produce a bagful.
• I grow tomatoes on my porch windowsill. Sometimes I leave them there all the time but latterly I have moved them out into a tomato growhouse which is against the house wall on a path. I grow 4-5 plants and have enough tomatoes to bottle as well. I also grow peppers of several varieties on my windowsill. They are hard to germinate but crop well. They freeze well, too.
• I grow shallots in plastic plant pots. Five in a pot they reproduce amazingly.
• I also grow lettuce of many different varieties in potato grow bags. You can just cut the top off some varieties and they keep growing.
The good news about growing in bags is, that after planting keeping them watered is really all you need to do. With things planted in the garden you have lots of weeding as well, so the bag method is good for busy working people.

Filed Under: Sustainable Living Tagged With: , , ,