Carbon footprint facts: 7 interesting aspects you should know
In these days, one of our major concerns is how to stop the climate change. The world’s rising energy demand is a global problem for climate protection. In particular, conventional power generation from coal, oil or natural gas causes most of the CO2 emissions worldwide. Together with other greenhous gases it heats up our atmosphere. This global warming can and will have fatal consequences for the environment and people all around the world.
It’s the daily energy in our all lives that support this unfavorable development. It doesn’t matter if it’s gas that heats our stoves, petrol that fuels our cars, or electricity that lights up our homes. It is all taking its toll.
The emission of CO2 into the atmosphere is due to the set of all activities of any individual person, community, enterprise or organization. It’s worth thinking about your own carbon footprint. Your personal carbon footprint basically describes your individual amount of CO2 that your lifestyle costs.
Please find here some basic facts about carbon footprints.
1. You are a source of carbon emission
The Federal Statistical Office of the EU has determined that every German correlates with approx. 11.3 tons of CO2 in 2017. The average for the EU is 8.8 tons of CO2 per person.In France, this CO2 equivalent was 7.2 tons and in the UK 7.7 tons. Worldwide, the amount has steadily increased since the 1960s. For some years there has been a general decline in the EU. In China, a high increase is recorded, while the US is constantly at a high level of around 16 ton per capita.The absolute front runner is Qatar (38 tons) and other Arab countries such as Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates with 22-24 tons per capita.
2. Your lifestyle is a source of carbon emission
Besides the fact that conventional production of energy causes most of the global CO2 emissions it’s also up to you and your responsibility of what you do and what you don’t do. For example, food production represents 83% of carbon emissions and 11% for ist transportation.
You can consider to use power from conventional sources or from renewable energies. You can decide whether you drive a muscle car or an electric car, or if you use public transporation and prefer travelling by train or if you prefer driving an SUV etc. It also makes a difference if you buy organic food or food from mass production, if you love to eat meat or if you are an vegetarian. It all adds up.
3. Your travel carbon footprint
Another aspect about carbon footprint facts is that transportation is also a top producer of CO2. Transportation includes many aspects: transportation of goods to deliver the whole world with any kind of products but it also means the transportation of people. People go from A to B every day, they travel on business or love to escape from home to spend some spepcial holidays somewhere. This means all CO2 emissions. It is just the difference how much emission we set free, if we try to minimize it or if we compensate some of our CO2 emissions to lower our carbon footprint. There are many ways what you can do. One o fit to use Travel & Tree, as we plant trees for every flight or accomodation booking.
4. Carbon footprint and flight emissions
If you take a long-haul flight, then you will be surprised by knowing that its CO2 equivalent is higher than what a single person in many countries causes in average per year. A flight from Munich to New York and from New York to Munich means e.g. 3,9 kg of CO2 per traveller. In 125 countries accross the globe the average CO2 equivalent per year is less than that! Even a short return trip, e.g. from London to Rome, means carbon emissions of 234 kg of CO2 per passenger. This is also more than more than the yearly carbon foot of a person in 30 countries.
Of course we cannot avoid flying all the time, especially while travelling on business. What we can do is to consider how often we fly, if we can use other transportation for short distances or if we can also take the train or publicat transportation instead.
5. Aviation Emission of carbon footprint would be triple
In fact, the avitation sector is marked as the fastest growing C02 polluter in the world. At the same time it’s interesting to mention that the internet and digital developments catch up fast. According to German news the carbon footprint of the internet is becoming as high as the carbon footprint from air traffic. The University of Manchester Metropolitan states that the CO2 emission by the aviation sector could become double by 2050, no matter if the future aeroplane consume less fuel or not.
6. Meat products have high carbon footprints
The carbon footprint of meat is high. Much higher than the carbon footprint of vegetables or grains. Animals like e.g. cows produce a lot of methane gas. The production of one kilo of beef causes between 7 and 28 kilos of greenhouse gas emissions – compared to less than one kilogram of fruit or vegetables.
7. Our all role and carbon footprints
It might be a surprise to you, that our all behavior has got an impact on our climate. It doesn’t matter if we think about it or not. It matters waht we do. As travelling is a great experience to discover the world, meet other cultures, make friends with different people etc. Travelling means unforgetable moments, special insights and a high leisure factor. Luckily, more and more green tour operators offer green tours. Green tourism lowers the impact and helps to save the beauty of our planet with all its nice beaches, nature and diveristy.