As you probably saw, my latest poll addresses your level of concern over your “carbon footprint”, which is a measure of how much CO2 and other greenhouse gases you pump into the atmosphere through driving, flying, eating, using electricity, and other life activities. The poll results indicate a wide range of concern, from high concern to no concern to unfamiliarity with the concept. Why should you care? First, I am now confident that the majority of scientists are correct that a) the world is getting warmer, which over time will dramatically impact our world, mostly in negative ways, and b) man’s activities are at least partially responsible. Second, in many cases, reducing your carbon footprint can save you money. Who doesn’t need to save money right now?

I found a great site, aptly named CarbonFootprint.com, that lets you calculate your footprint and find ways to reduce and/or offset it. The Box family’s footprint is about 17 tons/year. To offset our carbon output (by pulling an equivalent amount of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere or help in some other way), we would need to plant 17 trees each year. Each tree can suck about 1 ton of greenhouse gas from the air and replace it with oxygen and other products.

The site lists dozens of tips for shrinking your footprint. Here are a few:

• Quit buying bottled water. Instead, drink tap water or filter it at home. Transporting bottled water burns gas, and manufacturing the bottles use oil.
• Drive less through combining trips, carpooling, eliminating trips, or even moving closer to where you spend your time.
• Switch to cleanly produced electricity such as Green Mountain.
• Buy produce in season from local growers where possible. Out of season produce travels long distances from other areas or countries, burning lots of fossil fuels during the journey.
• Eat less red meat. Not only does beef production waste huge amounts of energy, cows also, um, “release” methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times worse than CO2. Eat more chicken and fish, or go vegetarian for even more impact.
• Run full loads of laundry and dishes instead of partial loads.
• Turn your water heater down to 120 degrees. Heating water uses a huge amount of electricity.
• Turn off lights when you don’t need them. For all appliances, including your computer, either unplug them when not in use or use a power strip to turn them off. Otherwise they continue to use power even though they are “turned out”.

Obviously some of these are harder than others, and we don’t do all of them perfectly ourselves. But every one will reduce your harm to the environment, and almost every one will save you money. Sound good?