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| Eco Info | Carbon Footprint |
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Almost all activities undertaken by humans and their machines have an impact on the quantity of greenhouse gases produced. Greenhouse gases are predominantly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Three groups of fluorinated gases comprising sulphur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons add to the predominant greenhouse gases to create the thermal blanket which keeps the planet warm. Without it we would be really cold, but as with a very thick blanket, we can also be too warm. If we didn't have any greenhouse effect, our planet would be about 33 degrees Celsius colder everywhere - that would be really uncomfortable! In general, we use carbon dioxide as the name given to greenhouse gases purely because it is the largest contributor to the mix. The term "carbon footprint" is a conceptual measure of the impact which a range of human activities have on the environment in terms of the quantity of carbon dioxide produced by the activity. The idea is that humans need a measuring stick against which they can personalise their individual and collective impact on the environment and global warming. We assign a numerical value to the carbon footprint and this gives an indication of our impact which we can use to compare progress to history. A second conceptual tool is the "carbon offset". This is an equal and opposite activity which serves to neutralise or offset the carbon dioxide emissions by a human or group of humans. It is therefore possible to have a large carbon footprint, but by planting a tree or generating electricity using wind power, we offset some of the damage by creating mitigating credits or carbon offsets. |
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