How to Survive Your Carbon Footprint

Anyone who has read books like " Hot, Flat, and Crowded" by Thomas Friedman, or Van Jones book, " The Green Collar Economy" probably knows we are on the precipice of a new age. Or, at least we should be.

And, if you are reading books like these, and trying to learn everything there is to know about the coming green revolution then you may be familiar with a term like carbon footprint.

Gee! All this time you have been walking around, breathing in and out, eating red meat, driving your car over 60, and heating your house in the winter and the only footprint you thought about was the one you left in the doorway after a big snow!

Not anymore.

Now, you must contend with your carbon footprint. And, you must not only feel extremely guilty about having a carbon footprint-that thing you are using to invade the lives of future generations, you must also do a number of things to lower, or completely do away with that-need I say it again? That carbon footprint!

Take a look at the following five actions you can take to save the earth, your future grandchildren, and their grandchildren and all the panda bears of the world.

1) Plant a tree! Better than that-plant several trees, and if you are really committed you can start a non-profit organization in your own community, partner with another environmental group or maybe even the city and have a city wide tree planting event!

2) Sell your SUV! If you still have that gas-guzzling hog-get rid of it.

3) Winter is right around the corner- when day turns to dusk drop the heat on the thermometer in your house. Every little bit counts.

4) Do not over inflate your tires- this leads to more gas usage. That is a little known fact.

5) Cultivate live plants in your home or apartment. Plants drop carbon through photosynthesis. Cool, huh?

Today's businesses are seeking ways to react responsibly to their carbon footprint. They are buying carbon offsets, donating to big forests like PG&E did in California and forming their own green initiative teams to figure out original ways to reduce their carbon footprints, especially if they are in the type of business that adds greatly to carbon emissions.

This is all well and good, but before all of us Americans get in an uproar and give up big cars, fat tires, barren fields, and turn our apartments into tiny greenhouses, perhaps we should have our leaders talk to China. Chopsticks, anyone?

Now, you are scratching your head. "Why, China?"

Well, cause China is releasing much more carbon emissions than had been predicted. Read this startling excerpt from the World Resources Institutes online Earth Trends Environmental Information website:

"Carbon dioxide emissions from China might pass those from the United States as early as 2009, according to the World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2006, released earlier this month by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris. The recent forecast moves up by over a decade the agency's previous forecast of China's emergence as the nation with the greatest emissions, a position currently held by the United States. The revision is based on the 13 percent-a-year average expansion in Chinese coal use since 2003."

So, now that you might be getting a clearer picture of the overall global situation of carbon footprints - it might give each American pause and help motivate them to step up and lead the world in working on truly innovative, functional methods to solve this universal challenge.