Climate change has become a very worrying and prevalent issue over the past few years. It comes with many consequences such as the ice caps melting , sea level rising, animal extinction and many more. This is why leaders across the world have been working together to try and tackle this. In Scotland, the government has created a legislation to attempt to reduce the amount of damage we are doing to the earth. The target of this act is to ensure that the net Scottish emissions account for the year 2050 is at least 80% lower, which is a huge percentage to achieve. New plans are being put into place to help with this act such as electric cars and 5p carrier bags.
After taking the WWF footprint calculator, I found out my carbon footprint was 122% which I was surprised at. I didn’t think I was harming the environment that much but the website allowed me to see where my errors were.
I found that the highest of my score was from travel. This was due to the amount of times I traveled by plane this year, which was 3 times return. Although I only drive between 2 and 5 hours a week as I walk to uni every day and every chance I get to walk I do, therefore I don’t feel like this can be helped. Although I could use local transport occasionally instead of driving when I need to. I do as much as I can to recycle and safe energy in the house which makes me feel a lot better about my footprint as it could be much higher if I wasn’t as cautious. However, I am partial to have the heating on when its not necessarily needed. As for food, I feel that I need to eat a bigger variety of foods, especially from local areas, and have a more colourful plate. I was shocked to learn how much pollution food prouction caused, “Every year wasted food in the UK represents 14 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. In total, these greenhouse gas emissions are the same as those created by 7 million cars each year.” However, WWF provides a helpful guide to eating and living well:
- Eat more plants
- Eat a variety of foods
- Waste less food
- Moderate your meat consumption, red and white
- Buy food that meets a credible certified standard
- Eat fewer food high in fat, salt and sugar
My total annual carbon emission was calculated to be 12.5 tonnes which I hope to reduce after reading all the useful tips available on the WWF website.
The website gives a insight into climate change in great detail. It has allowed me to see the changes I need to make in my life to ensure I am doing my part in helping save the world.
