Carbon Footprint Calculators, Emissions Trading and Carbon Free Products

The average American is responsible for 24 tons of CO2 emission per year. To give you an idea of what this means, take a football field and place a balloon on one end at the goal line and the other on the 10 yard line. In other words, you end up with a balloon with a diameter of 10 yards. If that balloon is filled with CO2 carbon emission it would weigh about 1 ton.

As if this isn't bad enough, about one half of the balloon will still be in the atmosphere in a year. The atmosphere can absorb about one half of the CO2 carbon emission in trees and oceans but the rest still hangs in the air.

Scientists at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, have concluded that cuts in CO2 of at least 70 percent in this century are necessary to avert the dramatic consequences of a warming planet. It's time we all learned how to reduce our carbon emissions with emissions trading, carbon footprint calculators and carbon free products.

Carbon Footprint Calculators, Emissions Trading and Carbon Free Products to Reduce Carbon Footprint

1.Use carbon footprint calculators to determine your footprint. Then, reduce it or go to zero carbon footprint by offsetting it. Offsetting is donating money to organizations that support projects. These projects include rain forest preservation because forests and oceans absorb CO2 carbon emissions. They also include support for renewable energy projects like sun and air. The calculator tells you how much to invest to offset your carbon footprint.

In other words, you are trading emissions. Carbonfund.org is an organization that accepts donations and invests them for you. After your emission trading with Carbon Fund, you receive a certificate and it is an income deduction. The Nature Conservancy offers a carbon footprint calculator at its site too.

Carbon Free Products to Reduce Carbon Footprint

2. Another way to reduce your CO2 carbon footprint is to purchase products that have the carbon neutral footprint such as Motorola's MOTO W233 Renew. It's the first, certified carbon-free cell phone made from recycled plastic water bottles. Through an alliance with Carbonfund, they offset their carbon emissions from the manufacture, distribution and operation of cell phones.

3. Find companies that offset their CO2 carbon emissions and do business with them. Carbonfund has a list of companies in alliance with them. There is also a list of companies that have carbon free certification.

A. Grounds for Change received the carbon free certification from Carbon Fund their whole company operations including the coffee. If you use their coffee, you maintain your carbon free footprint.

B. Jet Blue has a calculator on the Carbonfund website. You calculate flights to determine the CO2 carbon emission from them. If you desire to offset the CO2 emissions, make a donation on the calculator and it tells you which organizations your donation supports. For a pre-set donation, a round-trip from New York City to San Fransisco is $10.00.

C. Hyundai has a calculator on the website and after calculating your driving CO2 carbon emissions, you can make a donation to their project which is forest preservation. This project offsets 93,170 metric tons of CO2 carbon emissions per year.

D. Staples, which is the largest office supply in the world, has several eco products they sell and offer free Dell recycling. They support a forest project in Nicaragua that offsets CO2 carbon emissions. On their website, they keep track of how many trees their customers save by their purchase of recycled paper.

Carbon Footprint Calculators, Emissions Trading and Carbon Free Products to Reduce Carbon Footprint

Whether you reduce your CO2 carbon emissions footprint or offset it by trading emissions to zero CO2 carbon emissions, you are doing your part to save the planet from the dire predictions of global warming, species extinction and pollution.

Click here to read about the oil crisis and what you can do about it by this writer.

Sources:
http://www.carbonfund.org/