Carbon Footprints

• A carbon footprint is the total amount of carbon dioxide and green house gases emitted over something's entire life cycle.
• We can measure the carbon footprint of an event, a product or a service
• Carbon footprint allows us to identify the most polluting activities and see if the environmental damage is worth the use.
• measuring a carbon footprint is really hard
• It is hard to measure carbon footprint. For example, to measure the battery of a phone would require:

  • How all the raw materials were sourced
  • The manufacturing process
  • The total amount of power that it uses over its life time
  • How it's disposed of

  However we would miss a lot of the emissions (such as transport)
• Although its incredibly hard to get an exactly accurate carbon footprint it still gives us a good idea of what are the worst emitters.
• We can reduce emissions by using renewable energy sources
• We can reduce emissions by reducing waste
• We can reduce emissions by using a more efficient manufacturing process (using less energy)
• Waste produces a lot ofmethane
• Governments can create new laws and tax companies based on carbon emissions to hopefully encourage reduction
• carbon capture technology can capture carbon dioxide before it escapes into the atmosphere. It stores it deep underground so it cannot escape to the envrioment
• Renewable energy is more expensive
• Our entire economy is based on fossil fuels
• Governments are worried that if they prioritise the environment the whole economy might suffer. This makes international agreements difficult as countries will only agree to a policy that could negatively affect their economy if all the other countries will too.
• Every individual needs to be willing to make changes to their lifestyle.