What is carbon and how does it imply a footprint?
If you are looking for how to reduce carbon footprint we first need to know more about what we are doing wrong.
Carbon is a natural material found in all living life. As a solid form, often discovered in dead materials over extremely long periods of time it remains reveal inert in the ground.
The first release of carbon from human endeavor came from when coal was extracted and used to power machines as a substitute to employing human power to mechanize tools. As a result, and in its simplest explanation, the industrial revolution was born and along with it, it’s political ally and mandate, capitalism.
Furthermore, on the discovery of oil, the industrial arduous process of refining it from its crude state, has built huge economies across the world and has been a global commodity for nation building, as well as a resource that countries have fought over in bloody wars.
Fossil fuels is an umbrella term to these type of materials but as such they all equate to the same global conditioning of the planet. The excessive abundance of Carbon in the atmosphere.
A footprint is simply what each individual person makes in relation to their annual consumption and therefore own personal contribution to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Lowering one’s footprint, akin to a barefoot early version of man, is to tread carefully and avoid disrupting the environment too much.
Carbon and travel relationship
Travel is not the most carbon intensive contributor to climate change on its own but the relationship it has to its effects are ground shaking. Travel is a perquisite to modern living. Whether its travel to work or school or visiting family, the way human life has evolved over 50 years has seen a mass expansion of the distances now covered for normal life.
As such, it is the individual reliance on travel to sustain human life that has caused Carbon to rise exponentially since the 1950’s in modern society.
What are deemed better ways of travel?
Space and emissions are 2 main important aspects when considering a better way to travel.
Reducing the number of people using up road space and conversely, utilizing fewer vehicles that rely on the combustible engine can greatly reduce CO2 emissions. Taking buses and trains is seen as hugely more beneficial than private cars.
Looking to the future? Can technology respond to the issue?
For this reason there is a huge demand for energy efficient electric cars than emit no carbon in their use. Over the last 20 years there has been a huge push for increased scientific developments for revolutionizing the 4-way combustion engine.
Thanks to political lobbying, governments have faced pressure to add restrictions and penalties to motorists using older, more polluting vehicles to support their travel needs. That said, the growing concern of oil scarcity has pushed for massive funding’s for advancing the performance of electric motoring.
As a result of 20 years of national and private funding, electric cars are now capable of performing as effectively as petrol and diesel engines and a process of stemmed phasing is introduced in wealthy countries to reduce the dependent on oil. As such it is minimizing the emissions of greenhouse gases on a national and soon international scale.
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