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!

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.

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.

You will begin your quest to reduce waste at the shop or supermarket. If you consider the problem of waste as you make your shopping list you will be able to make a significant difference. As well as resisting those impulse purchases and large “bargain” sizes you’ll never be able to eat there are some further ideas for reducing waste in the home:
• Buy products that you can reuse
• Such as jars that you can reuse, rechargeable batteries
• Buy just one all-purpose product
• Buy only one household cleaner to use for all your cleaning tasks. Or make your own from vinegar or lemon juice,
• Ensure unwanted items are reused
• Give away to friends, sell them on a car boot sale and make some money or take them to a charity shops
• Cancel unwanted mail – find out addresses from which or the Direct Marketing Association
• Reuse wrapping and packing materials as wrapping and packing materials !
• Reduce Hazardous Waste by buying non-toxic products or find safer alternatives to hazardous products

Reducing non-biodegradable waste that has to be put into landfills is also crucial in the overall landscape of waste reduction, though few of us really know how to recycle items not collected by our councils or with bins or collection skips at our recycling centres. It is worth looking on line, there may well be a local charity recycling old computers or facilities for recycling other equipment such as printer cartridges but you will probably have to transport your stuff to them, or pay for postage etc. It is worth checking before throwing away something that is could well have a renewed life.

The role of the changes in the sun’s output in overall global climate change has not been particularly well understood. There is an 11 year solar cycle when the activity of the sun goes up and down, and scientists have been investigating what kind of influence these changes have on the Earth’s climate relative to the relative concentration of greenhouse gases. One of the most enduring climate change myths is that it is the sun that is causing global warming/. The argument is only sustained by being selective with the data chosen highlighting periods when the sun and climate changes are in some synchrony and ignoring recent data where they diverge. 

The changes in solar irradiance have only been measured with some accuracy by satellites for around 30 years, this very precise data show changes only of a few tenths of a percent depending on the level of solar activity over the 11 year cycle. Changes over longer periods have to be estimated from other sources which are important for building climate models. It is known that one component of recent global climate change was contributed by the increased solar activity of the last solar cycle; this was only a small part when compared with the impact of the additional greenhouse gases over the last period. In fact, over the last 39 years of overall global rise in temperature, the sun has shown a cooling trend and thus the sun’s activity and global warming are going in entirely opposite directions. Groups of scientists have independently concluded that the sun therefore cannot be the cause of recent global warming as the effects of global climate change are apparent regardless of the data showing that the sun is again less bright during a period of minimum solar activity.

Food being transported over the world consumes a large amount of energy and is a large contributer to global warming. To become sustainable in a future world there has been a movement for reducing food miles and encouraging local production. There is now a trend for more of us shopping at farmers market and seeking out local produce in our shops. I do buy local lamb- even though it is expensive. It’s a wonderful taste and the fact that i buy smaller amounts means we are eating less red meat. Good for all of us. A the very simplest level more and more of us are now starting to grow even a few vegetables in our gardens or allotments and the fact that at my garden centre there are now as many young vegetable plants for sale as bedding plants says that more folks are finding the pleasure of growing their – and reducing food miles to food metres. I have had as much pleasure growing and watching cauliflowers and peas and beans in my borders as I had with the flowers they replaced. I have to say that the raspberry canes i planted in the borders are a little unruly and my husband started to putt his face, but enjoying the raspberries on his cereal right up into October has converted him. I just mow off all the runners that spring up in the lawn. Come to think of it, a bit more global warming and i might just dig up the lawn and plant some olive trees. Perhaps a fig or two.