What can we do?
"Climate change is such a huge issue, nothing I do will make the slightest difference."
"Nobody really knows what's going on. It's a lot of scaremongering."
"How I'm going to pay this month's bills is important to me, not what's going to happen in the future."
People have all kinds of reactions to the subject of climate change - from fear to denial to an understandable wish to concentrate on the here and now rather than the future.
The bottom line though is that it's time to face the facts - because if we do and act now, we can keep global temperature rises to a minimum.
Its what they call a no-brainer... when it comes to global warming, every one of us has two choices:
Do nothing and hope the problem goes away
(Hint: It won't)
or
Do what we can to reduce our carbon emissions and protect the planet
(it's the only home we have)
The question is: How can we actually start reducing those emissions?
It's up to you, you and you
We've drawn up some easy-to-achieve actions you can take to reduce your carbon emissions on a day-to-day basis. They may seem like little things, but if enough people do them the difference we make will be huge.
Want to do more?
Good. Here you go.
- Call the Energy Saving Trust on 0800 512012 to get a free energy audit of your home and you could save up to £300 off your annual fuel bill and over 2 tonnes of CO2.
- Work out your carbon footprint
- Support local environment-enriching projects and balance out (offset) your CO2 emissions from flights and driving
How big is your footprint?
Another way of thinking about greenhouse gas emissions is to talk about them in terms of a 'carbon footprint'. This is a measurement of our individual carbon emissions (mainly CO2)
The average person emits 11 tonnes of CO2, which includes the carbon emissions associated with our home, travel, and even our shopping and food. Staggering!
Current thinking is that we should each, as individuals, aim to reduce this to four tonnes of CO2 a year.
To give you an idea of what what your carbon footprint is made up of...
- Meeting the energy (gas and electricity) needs of the average UK home creates six tonnes of CO2 per year – this would fill the Climate Dome 50 times.
- The average car produces nearly four tonnes of CO2 per year. This would fill the Climate Dome 30 times.
Want to know more?
Did you know these facts about our planet’s climate and the effects we have.
Make your pledge
There are lots of simple things you can do.
Total pledges so far:
2641 = 307.495 tonnes CO2
What does a kg of CO2 look like?
It is equivalent to 120 party balloons full of the climate-warming gas!
