What is a Carbon Footprint?

A friend visited us today, and brought her 7 year old and 14 year old daughters along. As the ‘adults’ were chatting, the 7 y-o asked, What’s a carbon footprint?

I explained, “It’s the measurement of the impact we’re having on the environment with the greenhouse gases we’re creating.”

After a blank stare my LTSH (Long Term Suffering Husband) added: “It’s basically a measure of how we’re screwing the Earth up.”

How is your Carbon Footprint impacting our Earth?

He’s so poignant! I then had a thought light-bulb (a sustainable, low wattage one, at that!) go on in my head and I asked, “Have you ever been to the beach early before anyone else, and the sand is so smooth – and there are no footprints at all?”

She nodded.

“Imagine then if you walked across the sand and left your footprints. You’ve done that before?”

She nodded again.

“But, imagine that just under the sand there were lots of little baby crabs just where you walked. What would happen?”

7y.o.: “They’d get squashed.”

“Yes, and now everyone has come down to the beach and is stepping on the sand and leaving their footprints as well. What would happen then?”

7y.o.: “All the crabs would get killed.”

“That’s right – and that’s what we’re doing to the earth. Except it’s not the crabs we’re killing – it’s the earth.”

I knew the next question before she opened her mouth: “How?” And I mentally struggled with the translation of Greenhouse Gases such as Carbon Dioxide, CFCs, Methane, etc. and which ones absorb and emit infrared radiation… AAAAHHHHHH!

“We’ve got these special gases called Greenhouse Gases that keep the Earth warm – they keep it at a special temperature and without them it would be so cold – we’d all die. They happen naturally at a certain amount, but we’ve been burning Fossil Fuels which create more Greenhouse Gases, and chopping down all of the trees which would normally eat up some of those gases. So now we’ve got too many Greenhouse Gases – and that is heating the earth up too much.”

LTSH added, “And then the cows keep farting.”

Yep, thanks LTSH – how do I explain that one?!

Then the 14 year old piped in, “So really, it’s the cows and the Electrical Companies that are screwing the planet up.”

Fortunately, I didn’t have to resort to adding Arsenic to the Muesli Slice I’d baked that morning, because the 14y.o. was being her typical cheeky self. After we all had a laugh and she fended off my attempt to choke her, she went on to explain to her little sister that when we use electricity it is made by using parts of the earth. When using those Earth parts (often by burning them) they change and not only create electricity, but also make Greenhouse Gases – and too many heat the earth. And if it gets too hot, then we won’t be able to grow food or live on it. And the Cows have a special fart because of a special process in their stomachs that allows them to digest certain plants, and this fart also increases the Greenhouse Gases. She also added that alot of fertilizers contributed to high amounts of Greenhouse Gases.

Aren’t kids clever? I should have simply left her to explain about the Carbon Footprint to begin with. She would have been more to the point and presented it in a way her sister could easily understand. All I think I did was install a phobia about squashing crabs the next time the child goes to the beach!

After they’d left, I did a little research on the web and did you know that here in Australia, Ruminant Animals (the farting, plant eating ones – cows, sheep and water buffalo) contribute to over half of our Greenhouse Gas emissions from Methane? And that there is now an immunization program for the cattle to reduce this? Hmmm, I wonder what the long-term (or short-term) effects of the immunization are in terms not only to the animals themselves, but also to the product people end up eating (beef) or drinking (milk).

To answer the question: ‘What is a carbon footprint?’, Wikipedia has a nice definition:

A Carbon Footprint is a “measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide”. It is meant to be useful for individuals, nations and organizations to conceptualize their personal (or organizational) impact in contributing to global warming. A conceptual tool in response to carbon footprints are carbon offsets, or the mitigation of carbon emissions through the development of alternative projects such as solar or wind energy or reforestation. The carbon footprint is a subset of the ecological footprint, which includes all human demands on the biosphere.

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