In the fist fall after I had been here, after a long hot summer, my friend told me, it would be snow in October. However, the snow was not begun until November. As we all know recently the global warming changed the climate obviously. The snow season came shorter and the summer turned to be longer is an obvious sign of global warming. What’s cause the global warming? “Carbon dioxide and other air pollution that is collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up.” Also, these carbon dioxides and air pollution are named greenhouse gases. Carbon footprints measure how much carbon dioxide we produce in daily life. To decrease carbon footprints, there are two important points, reduce and recycle.
Matthias mentions that more carbon dioxide can increase the growth of the plant. We would have more food. This is because the plants need carbon dioxide to grow. “With free airborne plant fertilizer and longer growing seasons, food production will skyrocket.” Also we can suffer a shorter cold days during the winter. Although summer itself would not get longer, days with warm temperatures will last longer then before. “So stock up on bathing suits.” It sounds like not a bad thing.
Nevertheless, what’s more important, the increase of temperature has bad effect of people’s health. As the weather become warmer, some diseases get a suitable environment to alive and spend. Because of the climate change, heat, humidity and rainfall will bring more mosquitoes, ticks and other parasites and carriers of tropical and subtropical disease to spread. Even to the area where these disease are not exist. Another fact as we all know is that if the temperature keeps increasing the sea levels are also rising as a result of global warming. This is harmful to islands and low-lying areas. People who live in that area may loss their home if is continues. There are some place disappeared because of global warming, like the Tiny Island which was in Bay of Bengal. All over the word faced these problems. If we focus on Colorado specially, for example, the longer time of summer and the shorter snow season changes water and snow pack, which is a great risk for Colorado. “Environment Colorado pointed to the current Boulder County Fourmile Canyon fire which has burned over 7,000 acres and 169 structures, along with the 2009 Boulder County Olde Stage Fire which burned over 3,000 acres during the winter, as examples of severe damage that extreme weather can cause.”
As it brings such a huge influence, where are these large amounts of greenhouse gas come from? A research shows that, 32 present of greenhouse gas come from electricity and heat. Land use change and forestry produce 24 present of greenhouse gas, there is 17 present from transportation, other fuel combustion are produce almost 10 present of greenhouse gas and industrial processes produce about 3 present greenhouse gas. As a result the carbon prints have connection with our individual life are from the electricity and heat and the transportation. The greenhouse gas they produced almost half of the whole quantity.
It is not as hard as we considered reducing carbon prints. We can start it from our daily life. There are two important points: reduce and recycle.
There are many things we can do to reduce the carbon footprints. As the above mentions, there are about 50 present carbon footprints come from electricity and heater and from the transportation. At the warm days, turn the thermostat up two degrees, and during the cold weather turn the thermostat down two degrees. In this way, it will decrease carbon output by about 2,000 pounds per year and can save about $98 per year for everyone. It is a quite good way, which benefit both the environment and people themselves. Nowadays people cannot leave without cell phone to connect with their family, friends, or people they have work relations. We usually keep them on even if we don’t use them, like after going to bed at night. Because we use our cell phone a lot, the battery used up quickly. Some of people include we have a bad habit, we don’t unplug electronics when don’t use them. Also like our stereos, after we used them, we always forget to unplug electronics. And we feel it is convinces for us because next time before we use them we don’t need to put the electronics on. However, even when electronics are turned off, something like cell phone charges, stereos, toasters and computers keep using energy. If people pull plugs out of the wall, they can save about 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide and $256 per year. It is easier to figure out there are too much traffic on the road. More and more people prefer to have a car because it makes life easier. While standing besides the street, people could not feel comfortable, as the cars produce too much carbon dioxide. If people can take the bus or light-rail, ride a bike, walk or carpool at least on day a week, they could avoid producing large mounts of carbon dioxide. From a research, every time people avoid driving one mile, they save one pound of carbon dioxide. Also, fill the car tires while driving. Inflated tires need more energy to roll, it means people need more frequent fill up gasoline. According to the Department of Energy, people can improve their fuel economy by about 3.3 percent if them keep their tires inflated properly. It shows that a car that normally gets 25 miles per gallon and drives 12,000 miles per year would require on extra 16- gallon fill-up annually and this extra 16 gallon need about $50. Multiply that by a million cars and the difference really adds up.
Another useful method to reduce carbon dioxide is recycling. Every time we recycle one pound of garbage, we reduce our carbon dioxide emissions by one pound. In Denver, there is a website (www.denvergov.org/DenverRecycles ) for people to recycle the old or useless stuffs. At home there are always some old things like laptop, television and so on. We don’t use them any more, but they still stay at our home. This is because we don’t know where to throw them away and we afraid they might damage environment. While in this website, they prove us a easy way to recycle our useless things. What you need to do is sign up for pick up. If you live in a single-family house, town home, or an apartment building with fewer than seven units, you can get residential pick up for free. If you live in a larger apartment complex, you can click on the recycling directory link to find the closest drop off recycling center.
We all know global warming had already become a world wild issue, it has close connection with everyone. While to cut down the carbon footprints, is the key point to solve global warming. If we pay attention “reduce” and “recycle”, control the production of carbon dioxide in the nature environment would not be tough any more.
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