Climate change- Simple steps to reduce your carbon footprint.
Climate change, also known as global warming, is something that is becoming an ever-increasing topic of discussion by world leaders. But many of us still don’t know the facts… There are simply too many key figures, or possible outcomes to summarise in one blog posts but here’s a snippet which proves we’re living on a planet which is heating up. Since 1880 the global temperature has risen 1.7 Fahrenheit and more alarmingly nine of the warmest years on record have occurred since 2000.
Hopefully like us, this makes you think, what can I do? Well in order to decrease your carbon footprint we’ve put together 5 simple, but effective techniques:
- Let’s start with the obvious. Change your driving habits… do you need to drive to the shops? Can you walk/bike? Or could you carpool to Uni? A huge contributor to carbon dioxide levels is cars and the fossil fuel industry. The less you rely on this form of travel, the lower your footprint will be.
- Avoid taking baths… Don’t stop washing altogether though, we’d suggest showers! Did you know that on average a bath uses 45 gallons of water, whereas a 10-minute shower uses approximately 25 gallons? That’s a huge difference and well worth considering!
- Still using old style light bulbs? Get with the times and get yourself a couple of energy efficient bulbs. One light bulb could save up to 1,300 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution during its lifetime.
- Now this is an interesting one… buying bottled water is bad for the planet! Just think of all that plastic that needs to go through processing when in the UK you have access to drinkable water readily at your fingertips! If you still aren’t happy with the quality of water, you could always purchase a filtering system.
- Be mindful what you print… As a university student, we all know there’s a lot of printing to be done. But be careful and consider… do you really need to print that? For example, with Google Drive, Dropbox, or even a good old USB, you can transport your files or share them with classmates.
These simple steps will go some way to reducing your carbon footprint. But if you have a keen interest in this topic and are looking for how you can effectively change the world for better, check out our Combined Engineering degree and start your journey as an engineer.