What is a Carbon Footprint?
A carbon footprint is the measurement given to the amount of greenhouse gases, those gases that are naturally a part of the earth’s atmosphere that keep it warmer than it would be without them, for which a person or group is directly or indirectly responsible to contributing more than would be naturally occurring otherwise. The carbon footprint specifically measures the amount of carbon dioxide or CO2 that individual people and/or groups are responsible for producing. The earth is heated by the sun, and when solar radiation combines with the carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere, instead of releasing the energy, it absorbs it. If too many carbons are in the atmosphere, the sun’s radiation becomes trapped and cannot be reflected out of the planet, thus causing the planet to heat more than it would naturally without man’s contribution. This interferes with natural climate change and can be detrimental to life as we know it on this planet. Without care to reduce our carbon footprint, we contribute to the warming of the planet beyond the point at which it can be viable to sustain life. The larger the carbon footprint, the more impact that person or group has on this problem.
