Theme:
Climate Change
Key Learning:
Climate change is having a large effect on the world in the present day. This is shown from the many statistics which have proven that the world is being severely effected by climate change. This ranges from examples of the large amount of fossil fuels which are being burnt to deforestation which is cutting down forests and trees. The issue with this lies between the low amount of carbon dioxide which is being absorbed within the atmosphere.
I used the online tool at from WWF at
http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/?_ga=1.176985891.745195644.1442412124 in order to measure my carbon footprint and I was genuinely shocked with my results.
Here you can see that my carbon footprint is 125%, with the biggest part of this being due to my travel arrangements because I use my car a lot instead of using public transport or commuting in a more environmentally friendly way. I also eat out more than I should, therefore a change in my diet is another way in which I can imrpove my personal carbon footprint.
Impact on my views/lifestyle/practice:
Prior to the climate change lecture, I did not have a great deal of knowledge surrounding climate change. I had heard of it being spoke about and I knew there were potential dangers in it, however I had never took as much of an interest as I should have. I think this was partly down to elder relatives with the opinion that it will ‘never affect you,’ which seems to be a more common opinion than I thought. After the lecture, I have realised that the world is in a much worse position than I thought, in terms of climate change. I feel as though many of us, myself included take the world for granted and we do not appreciate the potential of what the world can do for us, however we need to treat it with the same respect. In order to do this, many of us need to make changes to our lifestyles in order to create a better enviroment for everyone.
Areas of interest to explore further/develop:
I loved the tool on the WWF website and I would be intrigued to use it again in a few months when I have applied some changes to my every day life, regarding carbon footprint. I feel as though I have learned a lot from the lecture, however I do not feel as though I fully understand climate change, therefore I plan to do more further reading to expand on my knowledge.
