At a recent meeting, I learned that the U.S. emits 25 million pounds of carbon dioxide every minute. That’s a number that makes you pay attention. Just one week before, I took an online carbon quiz to measure my impact on climate change. It turns out that I create 9.1 metric tons of carbon. That’s the same amount created by cutting and burning all the trees in a section of the Amazon rainforest the size of 1.1 football fields.
That was big news to me. How could I, a life-long environmentalist and activist, be creating that much carbon? It became glaringly clear that being an environmentalist doesn’t mean that I’m not creating outrageous and incomprehensible amounts of carbon. The good news about being responsible for so much carbon, however, is that I have the power to reduce the amount of carbon in the planet by tons and tons just by changing my own actions.I decided to challenge myself. I developed my plan of action by making a list of my activities that impact climate change and then by ranking myself. The following are my climate-friendly activities:
° I take public transportation, walk, and ride my bike.
° I have been a vegetarian for 13 years.
° I don’t put my produce in a plastic bag at the grocery store.
° I print double-sided at work.
° I replaced all of my incandescent bulbs with compact florescent bulbs.
° I wash my dishes by hand.
° I use blackout curtains to regulate the temperature in my apartment.
° I go to climate change rallies.
With my head bowed in shame, the following are my most horrendous climate crimes:
° Coffee. I drink approximately 3 cups of non-shade grown coffee from coffee shops each week. That results in 162 cups in a landfill each year.
° Showers. Sometimes I take two very hot showers each day: once in the morning and once after fieldwork. Someone said that the second shower was Mother Nature crying on me.
° Imported food. I buy fruits and veggies shipped in from across the country and world, which creates carbon en route.
° Airplanes. I fly to Florida often to see my family during holidays. Airplanes are one of the biggest producers of carbon.
° Invasive species. I need to do more to help control invasive plants and prevent them from killing carbon-absorbing trees.
° Mailing lists. Why am I receiving so much junk mail when I could go to the DMA website to remove my name from the mailing lists?
° Grocery bags. While I take reusable bags on occasion or just use my backpack for groceries, I still get some plastic bags from grocery stores and the CVS.
Over the next month, I’m going to use the above list to guide lasting changes in my life and lighten my carbon footprint. Check in next month to find out how it goes.
In the meantime, join me in this challenge and get involved in DC Audubon’s Ban the Bags Campaign [0]. Let’s get plastic grocery bags out of our city and bird habitat! Last month, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags. Let’s follow in their footsteps and become the second U.S. to ban the bags!
I always complain that our politicians don’t listen to us. But have I actually told them what I want? Have I written letters? Now is our chance to tell our elected officials how we feel. Raising our voices works—cities and countries all over the world have already been successful in passing similar legislation. Click here [0] to learn more, sign the online petition [0], or print and send a form letter to Mayor Fenty [0] and a form letter to Councilman Graham [0]!