Simple Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Hello!! If you want to know on how to reduce your carbon footprint every day, then here's a great starting point.

As you know, we're over - polluting the atmosphere with too many gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane. Factories, transportation, smoking, trees being cut down -- these are all factors in the unhealthy increase of warmth in Earth. But we can change now: by taking little steps, we can certainly reduce our carbon (and other gases) footprint.

1. Walk and bike more. This does not only reduce the amount of polluting gases that are released into the atmosphere, it also improves our mental and physical health. Nature is always calming and you could always get a breath of fresh air or a sense of freedom while you're at it. You can get more exercise, too, strengthening your legs and arms. And at the same time you're helping the Earth. You could encourage others to do the same. Isn't it nice that you're doing something fun and relaxing but at the same time helping your planet?

2. Plant more trees. Trees help suck in lots of carbon dioxide and are a great help. And remember, even just planting 1 or 2 trees helps make a difference. As an addition, you could also plant rooftop gardens (especially if you're in the city). If you're in a suburb or rural area, you could plant a rooftop or a land garden. All plants are a help, no matter big or small.

3. Use sustainable palm oil. Consider that as your first option for oil. If you can't do that, then try an alternative for palm oil, such as coconut oil. Palm trees are drastically increasing and replacing trees that serve as natural habitats and actually really help the environment. By doing this, you are helping to save these trees and reducing carbon in air. By encouraging more people to do the same, you are making a bigger impact.

4. Waste less food. When you dispose of food and throw it in the trash, keep it in mind that when that food reaches the landfill, it would release gases such as methane into the air. In fact, in 20 years, it would be methane that would have a bigger impact than carbon in our atmosphere if we continue wasting food. If you have food that you can't eat, there are some options. You could either save it for later or compost it. If you want to do even more, you could even try to encourage restaurants to let their customers select portion sizes for their food, so less food is made and less is wasted.

5. Encourage more sidewalks and bike lanes. This is similar to the first one. A lot of times, worries about pedestrian and biker safety because of no sidewalks or bike lanes leads people to use their cars more, releasing more carbon dioxide into the air. To stop this, you could encourage local or state leaders and officials to enforce more sidewalks and bike lanes to let more people feel it safe to walk and/or bike.

6. Only buy necessary items. Many things you buy come from factories, which emit, again, a lot of carbon and other fossil fuels into the air. Each factory - produced object or material you buy is an encouragement for the factories to produce more and more. So this is why you should do the most important of the three R's: reduce what you use and buy. Of course you don't have to restrict yourself too much, but it's better to make wise choices for your health and the environment around you.

7. Save electricity and try to use a sustainable way of powering things. When you don't need electricity, don't use it. For example, when you leave a room and for a long time, make sure you turn the light off. To go further, try to use sustainable energy choices: take your first steps with a hybrid or electric car and go on to powering your whole house with sustainable energy sources such as wind and solar.

8. Actively volunteer in helping the environment. When you continuously volunteer in environmental groups, you're helping them and making a change. Whether it's planting trees or participating in a beach cleanup, you're helping the environment change for the better.

9. Don't smoke. Smoking not only causes various serious health problems, but lets smoke out into the air, damaging the lungs of yourself and people around you. It pollutes the atmosphere and also contributes to climate change. This is all the more reason for you to not smoke / stop smoking.

10. Use reusable materials. From trays to bags, try to use reusable items. See if you can use reusable trays at the cafeteria. Bring reusable shopping bags to shops. Use cloth/paper instead of plastic. Reuse materials such as milk cartons or rubber bands to create something or use it for something else. This way, you would reduce your waste and lessen your pollution by a lot.

So these are some of the ways to reduce your carbon footprint. You could take it one step at a time, but it's guaranteed that doing these small changes will help the environment a lot.