carbon footprints

what exactly is a "carbon footprint" is it a type of shoe

i would have done a question mark but i cant find the right button on this keyboard (new laptop)

It's when you replenish the toner in the school photocopier and spill it on the carpet. You put your foot in it and leave your 'carbon footprints' all over the carpet.

Sorry, MrsC, couldn't resist that, I'll get me coat

Well we have a family of 6, burn coal and drive a 7 seater VW and have a lower carbon footprint than the average family of 4 who has central heating and a small car. Mind you, our electric bill is only £60 a quarter.
It's to do with the estimated amount of carbon you emit into the atmoshpere each year.
But there are flaws, there is no section for those who cook on rayburns, the choice is gas/oil/electric. I cook on coal/wood rayburn that also heats our water.

We also only put out 1 bag of rubbish a week, 2 only when we have a clear out.

I personally think it is a load of old cods; total spin.

We've known about landfills and their issues for decades - but now it is good PR to talk about how naughty we all are.

It's the big companies that have shoved advertising down our throats and made us consumers and not individuals; we are all now counted by what we buy. So, the manufacturers all shove more and more packaging around 'stuff' and we get it in the neck from all and sundry that we are bad people because we either buy it or want to dispose of it. The manufacturers deliberately make it easier to purchase things rather than mend old ones [not like the old days], and we lap it up.

The issue is manufacturing and advertising; not consumerism. Even if the nation all said 'no'; they would think of some other way of selling it back to us. The government is run by these people in the back rooms now; so there's pretty much no hope.

What I love is the whole plastic bag thing; I've been reusing plastic bags forever...we always used our own plastic bags and when I refused a plastic bag a few years ago I used to get looked at as if I was a Martian. Now, it's all 'I won't put my onions in bags, do you know what that does to the environment???' Yes luv, I do - what about all the other packaging on the mountain of food that you have in the rest of your trolly; how much of that are you going to throw out by next week???

Besides, we are all made of carbon; trees are made of carbon; carbon makes the world go round. Carbon IS the world...it is the most abundant element on this planet after oxygen. If we aren't emitting carbon; then what are we doing???

On a personal scale; I do try to buy less, don't throw any food out unless it goes on the composter [I'm a vege], reuse everything, recycle all I can, grow my own, drive less and work from home as much as I can; but we've got to live otherwise we might as well be hermits.

The carbon footprint refers to carbon dioxide emissions not carbon per se. We are producing too much carbon dioxide which is a product of burning fossil fuels and well, anything organic. Organic in this context means living or dead organisms and they all contain carbon. So when we burn organic stuff the carbon oxidises and produces carbon dioxide, such as wood fires, gas and oil fires/boilers. Then again the oceans produce more carbon doxide than anything else just from the respiration of algae. We need to lock up the carbon dioxide produced by converting it into carbon by photosynthesis, so plant more trees and don't burn the wood.

Consumerism is HUGELY important, yes big business is keen to sell us more stuff but to say that we are so stupid that we are unable to say no is actually quite insulting. OK, at the moment people are used to saying yes but a few more and then a few more etc of us saying NO!!!!!! leads to change. In this country we are fortunate enough that we are in a position that we can make a difference. The greed we have in this country is directly linked (and yes I know there are other factors but to deny that we are partially personally responsible is negligent) to problems overseas, for example our perceived need for more meat leads to land which could be used for human consumption crops being used for animal feed, it's not difficult to work out the connection. People then feel that they need to do something (and I take the point above about not using plastic bags but having loads of other packaging, doesn't add up!) but don't for example want to reduce their car use, they buy into biofuels which in many cases (chip fat and the like aside) are grown in the potential food fields again.

Sorry for the rant, but we CAN make some difference and anything is better than nothing - why should we expect anybody else to do anything if we can't be bothered ourselves and we have a lot more options than somebody living in a hut in a third world country.

I didn't say we were stupid; just that 'they' would change tact if 'we' said no. I agree that only 'we' can make a difference; but it takes everyone to do a little and alot don't.

But that's my thoughts on the matter; which is what was asked.

No worries re your opinions, just thought that your original post indicated that you felt that we were helpless pawns in the game being run by big business. Maybe just the way I read it. Am sure they will change tact but so long as we try and keep one step ahead of them then eventually we'll get there. More people are getting it now (a few people doing a bit is still better than nobody doing anything) so I'll continue to be optimistic

Actually it's perfectly carbon friendly to burn wood from sustainable resources. Wood for fuel is carbon neutral.
If woodland isn't coppiced then nothing much will live there and it is bad for wildlife.

Easy ways to reduce carbon footprint...
Never buy imported food, use less electricity, don't fly anywhere, don't drive more than needed.

Don't wear fake leather, nylon or acrylics they are produced from petro-chemicals, stick to natural home produced wool and fur (not cotton...can't grow enough here) or alternative fibres like nettle fibre.

Become self-sufficent, use shops less. Make do and mend clothes.
Support UK farmers and buy locally. Forget your bananas, mangoes and papaya, New Zealand lamb and luxury buffolo mozzerella from Italy. Check out your local places.

Don't donate to Greepeace until they run their ship on reclaimed waste veg oil biofuel. (can be done, fishermen round here run their fishing boats on it)


All in all, there are ways to cut carbon footprints without swallowing the propagande and putting up with hassle from eco-facists. (Including the one who believed that people who need cars due to disability should commit suicide as we were destroying "her" planet, I hope her a**e glowed after I hexed her)

The earth is not dying....The planet goes on climate circles, species survive, some become extinct. The only real problem here is man is at risk of extinction, when man is extinct the earth will still be living, various other species will be living too, it's called evolution.

We have not created climate change, it is a natural process that has been accelerated by man. Accelerated, not created.
Here endeth the lesson on Envrionmental Science

lol cheeky monkey!

Our biggest waste in this country is not harnessing the power of our surroundings, water is abundant we have 200 hydro electric plants in the UK (surprising isn't it), and 1 commercial wave power station. Lets be honest with the amount of coastline we have this really is an insult. I know that harnessing this power has proven more difficult, but the visual impact of wave technology is far less than that of offshore wind farms. Though viable windfarm sites could achieve 20% of our energy needs.

Greenpeace aren't all that bad, they funded the following project.

islay wave bus

Oh sorry, didn't comment on the question, Carbon footprint is a new description of what we would really have once considered to be common sense.

Yey, Starchild! Finally someone who thinks like me (except I wouldn't dare hex anyone, they have an awful habit of ricocheting and hitting the innocent ) I do try not to be an eco-fascist, but I know many people think I am, and I would never suggest something like that to a disabled person.....that's just disgusting.

Basically plants lock-up carbon and in the process produce oxygen. In the distant past these plants produced the fossil fuels we are now burning, effectively trapping the carbon dioxide for millions of years rather than just for a few decades. Prior to that the Earth had a much higher concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and plants 'cleaned' it, making higher life-forms possible - a sort of reverse greenhouse effect if you like - we are now mindlessly returning the planet to what is essentially its ancient atmosphere. We might not survive, but other life forms definitely will and the cycle will probably begin again.

In addition to the obvious targets of supermarkets - which I never use - and big business generally, I'm increasingly becoming quite irritated by 'eco-friendly' companies. Many have started to put out brochures and catalogues which bang on about their green credentials, and even give potted biographies of their workforce, thus taking up twice the space necessary (albeit on recycled paper) and selling products that are quite pointless - a wooden tomato box for example; cost around £30, with no mention of the fact that although plastic is 'bad', if you happen to have something plastic and suitable lying around it's far better to use that than chuck it in landfill then buy something new and have it transported the length of the country, even if the new thing has been made from a carefully managed local woodland by some sort of 'craftsman'. No mention, indeed, that you can even obtain a wooden tomato box free from the local greengrocer. I appreciate these companies have to sell things to survive, but it seems as if many are just getting totally silly and I worry that some people will fall for it.

We live two miles from the centre of a large city yet we manage to produce most of our own fruit and veg, buy what can't be produced from the farmers' market, fill our bin roughly every 8-12 weeks and use the car only to get my OH to work (he works in the middle of nowhere and there simply isn't a bus). I appreciate that not everyone feels able to live as we do, but if we can make such a change, living where we do, I'm sure others could make at least a token effort, but there seems not to be the will. I've had someone say to me; "Fifty years from now we might find that things weren't so bad after all, the scientists might have got it wrong." Sorry, but I have a grandson, I'm not prepared to take that sort of risk with a future that will be his, not mine.

Just a case of aiming practise