The “carbon footprint” is a growing issue and is an environmental indicator of the marks humans leave on nature, which are invisible to us. To illustrate, think about things you do in your everyday life, like using your car, using the air conditioner, and the excessive use of plastic. All these things help to increase your carbon footprint.
It goes without saying that this is a bad thing, but to be more specific, changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels, and the melting of the glaciers are all examples of its impact. So, here are some tips that can help you to reduce your carbon footprint daily.
1. Reduce the plastic
Every year, people throw out approximately 2 billion tons of trash, and according to the United Nations, it is likely that approximately 11 million tonnes of plastic end up in lakes, rivers, or seas every year. This means that, in addition to this plastic polluting the water and contaminating animals, it is not being recycled.
You can reduce your plastic use in many ways these days! With small actions like using ecobags to cut down on plastic bags, refusing plastic straws, and using reusable bottles.
Don’t forget to recycle your daily plastic! By doing that, you can save about 903.5 kg of carbon in just a year; this value is equivalent to purchasing about 900 paperback books or taking 565 hot baths.
2. Stop consumption
Nowadays, with social media, our consumption is directly influenced, but you need to know one thing: you don’t need everything influencers show you.
You don’t need to buy specific clothes just because they showed up on your timeline, and you don’t need to buy a trendy makeup item that’s probably going to be forgotten in a few days, or even any beauty product that contains microplastics. Always search and think twice before buying anything!
Another way to minimize your consumption is to buy secondhand clothes and shoes, repair objects instead of throwing them out, or buy from brands that care about the environment and offset their carbon emissions.
3. Save energy and water
One of the easiest and most important methods to minimize your carbon footprint is to save energy in your house. And you can do this in several ways.
Taking short showers, turning off the tap while brushing your teeth, or even turning off electronic devices when we are not using them are part of this category, and they are so simple that we learn them in school.
But other simple actions that also help save water and energy are: switch your common bulbs to LED ones, hang your clothes to dry instead of using an electric dryer.
To save water in your house, it´s important to always check for leaks! They can be in your bathroom or your kitchen. And, this way, you can fix them and save liters of water per year.
4. Reduce your Digital Footprint
Although other things consume water and energy, like your digital footprint and AI. A clear example of this is that, according to UNICEF, AI-related structures may soon consume six times more water than Denmark, a country of 6 million people. And not to say that AI is directly connected with your energy consumption.
And the digital footprint is not only connected with AI. So, small actions like unsubscribing from spam, deleting old emails and accounts, and deleting duplicate photos on your cellphone gallery can help to minimize your digital and carbon footprint!
Climate change is a real problem, and individual actions do help the Earth. Now you know that reducing your carbon footprint is not that difficult. And, with baby steps, we can make a huge difference on our planet and save the environment!
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The article above was edited by Rafaela Navarro
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