By Cole Tomlin, Staff Writer
Eat less meat: Raising livestock is one of the highest producers of greenhouse gases; therefore, eating less meat is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint.
Unplug your devices when you’re not using them: Every time you plug into an outlet, it is drawing energy, so the more often you can unplug your devices, the better. Keep that Chromebook charged, though!
Driving less: By choosing to ride a bike or walk, you are directly reducing your carbon emissions. Yes, sometimes you have no choice but to drive a car. However, if you do have to drive, carpooling is a great way for you and your friends to reduce your carbon emissions. Public transportation saves 37 million tons of carbon a year in the U.S.
Don’t buy fast fashion: “Fast fashion” is a strategy used by most large clothing retailers. These businesses sell “must-have” trends at a very low price. This causes a huge amount of textile waste every time a trend changes. Also, if the clothes you’re wearing are not organic cotton or if they are made overseas, they are even worse for the environment because of pesticide use and the physical movement of the clothes from country to country.
Plant a garden: Planting a garden, whether it is a huge greenhouse or just a couple of greens on your porch, will reduce your carbon footprint. All plants use carbon dioxide and give out oxygen in the process of photosynthesis, so planting a little garden is an easy way to contribute positively to the environment.
Eating local/organic: Eating local and organic food will reduce your carbon footprint by reducing greenhouse gases that are emitted when food is transported over long distances by either plane, ship, train or truck. Also, eating organic food will mean you are eating foods that haven’t been sprayed with pesticides, which usually run off into nearby rivers and pollute the water.
Line-dry your clothes: By line-drying your clothes, you can reduce one-third of your carbon footprint. Yes, it might be faster to use a traditional tumble dryer, but usually, a dryer is equivalent to turning on 225 light bulbs for an hour, which is a lot of energy.
Recycle: Recycling has a direct effect on your carbon footprint. By recycling, you save trees, save money, reduce landfill space, conserve energy and reduce pollution. Landfills of trash do the exact opposite of all these things and have a huge effect on the number of greenhouse gases put into the environment.
Compost: By having a compost pile you can reduce the amount of trash that goes into a landfill and you can help your garden grow. Compostable items are things such as rotten fruit, rotten vegetables, eggshells, leaves, grass clippings, old wine, manure, etc.
Take shorter showers: If you take shorter showers, lower your water heater temperature and install a low-flow shower head, you can save as much as 900 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Junior Cole Tomlin can be reached at 21tomlinco11@daretolearn.org.
