Australians Have the Biggest Carbon Footprints

Did you know..?

Australians, (then Americans) on average have the largest carbon footprint in the world. Basically, this is because of our huge dependence on fossil fuel and most Australians have ginormous homes compared with the rest of the world.

Read this at Zero Your Carbon.

One of the problems is though that we’re subjected to the most ridiculously high electricity prices and are then offered the option of paying more for carbon offsets. Hmmm, now I think that the electricity companies are taking the proverbial a bit there. Especially considering when we run out of fossil fuel all their electric will have to come from renewable energy sources anyway. So, in effect, they’re asking us to pay for their investment in something that they are going to need otherwise they’ll go out of business. Sounds like a rip off that the government should do something about.

Solar Power

Using solar power is a great way of reducing your carbon footprint. Having a few solar panels on your roof and using them to heat your hot water is the way forward. Providing you don’t live in rainy England or Tasmania. There are now government rebates in most countries for installing solar heating so find out about it and get your electricity costs down now.

Posted by Ion e-Business Web Design.

Simple Steps to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

You can do each of these steps straight away and they will begin to reduce your carbon footprint:

• Sign up to a green energy supplier who supply electricity from renewable sources such as wind and hydro-electric.
• Turn electrical items off at the wall when you’re not using them.
• Turn down the central heating (for those of you in the UK) and turn up the air-conditioning to 24 degrees centigrade (for Aussies).
• Turn down the water heating temperature a couple of degrees. There’s no point in burning yourself while you’re trying to get your shower temperature right.
• If you’re making a cup of coffee for one person, use enough water for only one person.
• Unplug your mobile after it’s finished charging.
• Run to the gym instead of drive. Not only will this stop you producing carbon dioxide from your car but you’ll ask yourself why the chuff you’re paying for a gym membership when you could be running instead.
• Recycle as much as you can. Or as much as your council will let you with their pathetic attempts at collecting your recyling rubbish.

Of course there are lots of other things you could do to help lower your carbon footprint but a lot of them would make your life unbearable or are just unfeasible to most people. I’ll list a few to give you an idea:

• Don’t drink bottled water. Unless your tap water tastes like shite and brown stuff comes out of it after a storm.
• Buy only organic produce. Great idea and possible in some countries but if you do this in Australia your house will be repossessed pretty sharpish and you can’t forget the ‘credit crunch’ these days.
• Grown your own fruit and veg. Hmmm, that’s ok if you’ve got a garden, you don’t rent, you have some idea of how to keep off insects and you don’t have to go to work to pay the aforementioned rent so that you can garden all day.
• Ride a bicycle to work. So that you get there in your suit all sweaty and get the nickname ’stinky’.
• Use biodiesel in your diesel car. Once again, not a bad idea except the governments around the globe tend to sting you for using it so much that you may as well not bother.

Anyway, that’s enough of that – you get the picture. A little is better than none.

Change Your Light Bulbs

Though we call them “lights,” traditional incandescent bulbs are actually small heaters that produce a little light — and waste a lot of energy making heat. (You know this if you’ve touched one that’s been on for a while!) In the 1880s, they revolutionized the world. But today, we can do better.

Better alternatives use more efficient technology

Once dismissed as buzzing tubes in offices, fluourescent lights have gone compact and upscale. Energy-saving compact fluorescents (CFs) now rival the cozy, warm light of traditional bulbs. They use a fraction of the electricity, which means lower electricity bills and millions of tons less global warming pollution. And in the summer, because they don’t burn as hot as incandescent bulbs, they’ll lower your cooling bills.

If every household replaced just three 60-watt incandescent bulbs with CF bulbs, the pollution savings would be like taking 3.5 million cars off the road!

Offset Your Carbon Footprint

Whilst you can minimise your carbon footprint you will never be able to reduce your carbon emissions to zero. Whilst I’m typing this I’m using electricity which is affecting my carbon footprint. It is, however, possible to offset your carbon footprint by planting trees that will absorb the amount of carbon dioxide that you generate.

The plant-a-tree-today organisation can help you calculate your carbon footprint and will plant trees to offset it on your behalf.