Carbon Footprint Calculators
Your carbon footprint is a term used to describe the amount of carbon that you personally release into the atmosphere. Carbon is released as a byproduct of many things we do (including breathing actually) and this means that everyone has their own carbon footprint. However while some of us release copious amounts of carbon, there are ways that the conscientious can reduce their carbon footprint and so diminish their culpability for the carbon that enters our atmosphere.
For most of us, our carbon footprint is directly proportional to the amount of energy we use. This is because carbon emissions are produced whenever natural fossil fuels are burned such as coal or oil. As most power plants are reliant on these sources of energy still, that means that when you run your lamp, your television or your computer there is a factory burning these fuels on your behalf. Your carbon footprint is then further added to by the fossil fuels you burn directly yourself – such as the petroleum you use to power your car.
There are many ways you can try to reduce these carbon emissions and to live more responsibly. To do this though you should first find out how severe your contribution to the problem is and this is where carbon footprint calculators come in – these allow you to input the data regarding the energy you use, how much you travel etc and this will then give you a relatively comprehensive estimation of your carbon footprint.
This works much like biofeedback which is used in psychology, sports and medicine. Things like heart rate monitors and blood pressure monitors are examples of biofeedback and what these allow you to do is to read how much you are increasing your heart rate and to thus know what you need to do to slow it down again. You can then measure your progress, note when there’s a problem, and note which methodologies prove most successful.
Carbon footprint calculators provide this same feedback then to help guide your changes but the feedback is about how much carbon you use rather than anything to do with your body. Carbon footprint calculators also give you a standardized readout that then allows you to calculate your progress next to others and next to the average.
Of course no carbon footprint calculators are going to be completely accurate, and all of them will be rough estimates that include as many factors as possible but leave out some. This is partly due to the incredibly large number of factors that play a part in our carbon footprints. For instance your carbon footprint is not just a result how much you run your indoor appliances and how much driving you do. It also should take into account for instance the number of holidays you go on – as this will mean that you are traveling by plane which creates much more severe fuel emissions than your car. The plane would still have gone without you, but if there were 30 less of you it would not have – and that means that you are partly responsible for the carbon emissions it creates. When you order parcels from abroad too think about your part in the fuel costs of that shipment.
There are more businesses these days that provide carbon calculators. There help businesses in particular reduce their carbon footprint.
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