Climate change is a very important topic that should be observed greatly and taken seriously. Why you may ask? I will tell you why. If people don’t start paying more attention to the damage that they are causing the environment, then bad things are going to happen. In fact, they have already started to happen. Think about Hurricane Katrina, if you don’t know what Hurricane Katrina is-click here! One of those bad things is the climate changing. We don’t want that happening because to be frank, if it changes too much we’ll end up dead. So now you must be wondering, is there anything that I can do to possibly prevent this from getting out of hand? I will answer this with a yes! Yes, there are things you can do to be environmentally friendly so that one day we do not all end up dead. Next, you are probably wondering, is there anything I can go by so that I can have an idea how much/how little damage I am causing to the environment? Again, good news because I will answer that with another YES! That ladies and gentlemen leads up to my exciting topic today about…………drum roll please……………………………………. Carbon Footprints-what they are, and what can done to reduce them. I hope you enjoy! =)
What is a carbon footprint? A carbon footprint is a unit of measurement that determines how much human activities impact the environment and how they may possibly influence climate change. It focuses on the amount of greenhouse gases that each person individually produces and the units of Kg/tonnes equivalent.
Okay, so now that you know what a carbon footprint is, you may be wondering what is a good size to keep your carbon footprint at. Obviously, the smaller the better, but I’m going to try to offer you a more helpful guideline. That is coming up next:)
The ideal size for a carbon footprint is………….1 tonne per person per year. Wow, you may think that is sure a lot of carbon! Although, you may be surprised to know that in the United Kingdom the average size of a carbon footprint is 9.4 tonnes per year. That sure does make the ideal size of 1 tonne per year seem pretty small. But don’t worry; I’m going to give you some helpful tips on reducing your carbon footprint, so that hopefully we could reach our goal of 1 tonne per year. Good luck everybody!
Click here – Tips on Reducing your Carbon Footprint =). I figured clicking on this link would be much more efficient than me just retyping everything, but I still plan on offering some insight into this topic.
Quick summary if you really don’t want to read the link. LESS IS MORE. Yah sure, you’ve probably heard that before but let me explain how true this statement is and how much it really does make sense! The less carbon that you omit, the more that you are helping save the planet. See, less is in fact more :). Just small changes in your lifestyle could make a big impact on helping the planet if everybody decided to take part. For example, a very simple thing to do would be to stop purchasing bottled water. Often times, plastic is not biodegradable, and also the amount of emissions required to ship the plastic water bottles is too great. A smarter idea would be to purchase a water filter so that you can filter the water from your tap (if you don’t like the taste of tap water). Also, you would be saving money by not buying bottled water which is always a bonus!!!! =)
Anyway, I hope my blog gave you all some useful insight on Carbon Footprints, and remember LESS IS MORE! See ya soon!
Wow! I like how you made it a little funny in introducing your topic. I really think you could improve this by maybe having a picture or two, I know I understood what you where saying but maybe it would be clearer by showing a picture. 😀
Good topic! Very real and practical topic, to help everyone’s everyday life. Perhaps in order to help your readers who may not all be attending the course you can further quantify what 1 tonne per person per year is. Also who determined what the ideal size was and why and how exactly do people produce greenhouse gases? I think the challenge in your post is giving people enough information and motivation to think about how they can help. You refer broadly to “bad things in the climate”. What does this actually mean to the average reader?
Hi Amy,
Feedback.
Choice of topic:
– Great.
Use of resources:
– Careful. Many of the resources you cite seem questionable. For instance, are there more credible sources you can find for the definition of carbon footprint, and the recommended footprint size?
– Also, as Abayomi asks, who determined the ideal size? And how?
– You might also explain (with reference to a credible source) what the term “equivalent” means in this context, since it may not be obvious to your reader.
Style / Coherence:
– Your writing in this draft is very casual and has a strong “stream of consciousness” feel to it which I don’t think is appropriate if you want to people to take you seriously. I’d suggest that you consider speaking less to the reader (e.g. asking few questions to the reader, and instead simply stating your points) and writing less about what you’re about to write, e.g. avoid saying things like “…but I’m going to try to offer you a more helpful guideline. That is coming up next:)”
Understandability / Clarity:
– In the “Use of resources” section I’ve given you a few suggestions on how to round out this post.
– There are several points where you make abstract or vague statements (e.g. “We don’t want that happening because to be frank, if it changes too much we’ll end up dead”). Try to clarify what you mean. Cite your sources!
Insights / Originality:
– As I mentioned, this post is a fairly verbose and casual. Aim for concision in your rewrite.
Good use of blogging features:
– You needn’t put “Click here” before your link, since you can just link the text that refers to your source as I’ve just done.