Carbon Footprint

by Roger Lovejoy

The Carbon Footprint is a calculation of the amount of carbon dioxide emissions a person or body creates.

The Carbon Footprint is used in calculating the Global or Ecological Footprint which equates the amount of CO₂ released with the amount of land needed to grow sufficient crops to absorb it.

The reason this is important is that we produce more CO₂ than can be absorbed. If we were only burning biomass we grew there would be a in/out cycle of CO₂ to the atmosphere as we respectively burnt and grew the fuel. However burning fossil fuels creates an increas of CO₂ that cannot be absorbed by the limited ability of the bio-sphere. The result is a greenhouse effect with the prospect of global warming, which it turn, if unchecked with lead to sea-level rises and serious detriment to much of the habitations.

The only way to reverse the trend is either to drastically reduce fossil fuel use or to collect the CO₂ and store it somehow

The first option has two points. 1 The alternatives are nuclear, which is a small resource and won't last long and 2. Solar energy either dircetly as electricity or heat or indeirectly from waves and wind.

The second option of removing CO₂ and storing it is called sequestration.

The two options are discussed in more detail on the next page.

Fossil fuels will run out before too long, but we can't wait till then. We can't afford the hazards of increased global warming, not the shock of being without our prefered fuel. We have to make changes now. See Transition Culture.

Plymouth's current footprint, being a western affluent city, is unsustainably high at 12.5, not as much as London or New York but way off the scale compared to some third world towns and villages. Obviously if the majority of people didn't have a footprint that needed only a small part of the planet, leaving room for other creatures we would have all died long ago.

The intelligent guess is that given the number of people using so much of the resources they are going to expire as will we.