Navigation

home

energy, carbon and climate change

transport

waste and resources

food and business

landscape and biodiversity

campaigning and communication

contact
Golden Valley Environment Group

CARBON.  These days we hear a lot about Carbon Footprints.  

We're generally talking about carbon dioxide (CO2) although we should not forget that there is a range of greenhouse gases CO2 is just the largest contributor (in general).

Carbon dioxide is produced when carbon containing fuels are burned.  For an individual that means when we heat things, use electricity, travel (even by bike and on foot though no one's really going to begrudge the CO2 that you produce that way! - it's the same basic process carbon being burned for energy).

Carbon dioxide accummulates in the atmosphere - that's been happening for some time now - often you hear that levels started to go up with the industrial revolution, it may have started earlier when forests were cleared en masse for agriculture.  Either way what we are seeing with those graphs of increasing levels of CO2 is an indication that the earth's systems cannot absorb all the CO2 being released (they accept most of it but not all).  

CO2 acts a bit like a blanket - keeping warmth in and warming up the planet - slowly, unevenly but apparently surely.

You will hear more about carbon rationing and carbon rations - the idea that there's an amount of carbon that each person could produce in a year that would mean that the atmosphere/planet was not irreversibly damaged.  How that would work in practice is hard to say - one day we could all carry carbon credit cards and every time you buy something, drive somewhere, take a flight etc your carbon card is debited.  At the end of the year if you're still in credit you sell the credits to those who are in debit.  

To find a fair and equitable way of sharing out a finite resource amongst the world population will be a challenge, if you've got one please let us know.  

We want to work on reducing CO2 and we want to work with you!

Some things to think about:

  • FIRST, get to know more about it.  Get to know more about what it is that YOU do that produces carbon.
    What you do DIRECTLY:  turning on the heating, driving the car, flying - ok if you can do that by flapping your wings you are exempted
    and what you do INDIRECTLY:  the things you buy will have taken carbon to produce, the things that you throw away can produce carbon too.  

  • SECOND, think about what you can do to reduce carbon.  

Please get in touch with us about developing a plan to help people become more aware and to take actions to make things better.  
Click here to return to top of this page.