There are many ways in which we can reduce our carbon footprint and thus the negative impact on our planet. From changing our diet, to being tech-savvy with energy saving devices, we can all play our part in helping the environment, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, and reducing global warming.

Vegetarian diets are economically friendly and can also reduce the risk of several diseases. If less meat is produced, greenhouse gas emissions from the industry will decrease, less land will be required for rearing and instead can be used as natural woodland.

Travel more on foot
Choosing to lower your carbon footprint can lead to a healthier lifestyle in other ways too, as the prime example is, when possible, to choose to travel more by foot and less by car. Travelling on foot prevents emissions of carbon monoxide, soot and other gases from vehicles. This also directly decreases air pollution, making it much cleaner to breathe in. It is also best to avoid air travel for a similar reason, as this produces 12% of all travel-based CO2 emissions – if you have to, fly economy, as the emissions are much less damaging when shared between more people, and try to fly shorter distances.

Save energy and money
Closer to home, make sure your house is insulated and you choose energy saving devices, which could save you money while helping save our environment! Don’t heat or cool your house when nobody is home, and try to eat locally produced (or even home grown) groceries if possible. This means that energy is not wasted in transporting them worldwide when they could’ve been bought only a few streets away.

Reselling items prevents the components being lost when they are finally disposed of, and recycling them means that less resources are required to be taken from the earth when they are already perfectly usable, which helps combat issues such as deforestation for the need of paper.

Why should I help?
Unpredictable weather conditions and changing temperatures mean that once indigenous crops must be farmed elsewhere for their optimum condition, and rising sea levels threaten coasts being eroded, land being lost, and even towns and cities being destroyed by the water. These shifting weather patterns also threaten wildlife, who must adapt quickly by migrating at short notice, during unusual seasons and for long periods of time, and then may find that a food source which they once depended on is now no longer blooming at the time at which they need it.

If we all make a difference to our own emissions, we subconsciously help the planet tackle one of the biggest crises of our time.