Waste Not, Want Not

Everybody on the planet leaves a carbon footprint. Can you guess what this means?

A carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases that a person uses because of their lifestyle.

 

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Traffic Jam

Courtesy of the EPA

Traffic Jam
Courtesy of the EPA

Traffic Jam

Traffic Jam

Courtesy of the EPA

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For example, when someone drives a car the engine uses fuel that releases the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. When you are watching television or playing a computer game, the creation of electricity to power them releases some carbon dioxide. Even when you buy food, the energy used to produce that food would have emitted some carbon dioxide.

As you can see, there are a lot of ways a person can create carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.