Carbon Footprint?? what the???

Question

can any show me how to work out how to calculate a familys contribution to CO2 levels...(figure out the carbon footprint)

its for a ashighment

thanks...also im in australia so if its from another country will it be the same way :S

Answer 1

A carbon footprint is a "measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide".[1] It is meant to be useful for individuals, nations and organizations to conceptualize their personal (or organizational) impact in contributing to global warming. A conceptual tool in response to carbon footprints are carbon offsets, or the mitigation of carbon emissions through the development of alternative projects such as solar or wind energy or reforestation. The carbon footprint is a subset of the ecological footprint, which includes all human demands on the biosphere

The carbon footprint is a measure of the exclusive global amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases emitted by a human activity or accumulated over the full life cycle of a product or service (see Wiedmann and Minx, 2008).

The life cycle concept of the carbon footprint means that it is all-encompassing and includes all possible causes that give rise to carbon emissions. In other words, all direct (on-site, internal) and indirect emissions (off-site, external, embodied, upstream, downstream) need to be taken into account.[2]

Normally, a carbon footprint is expressed as a CO2 equivalent (usually in kilograms or tonnes), which accounts for the same global warming effects of different greenhouse gases (UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POST, 2006). Carbon footprints can be calculated using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, or can be restricted to the immediately attributable emissions from energy use of fossil fuels. In both cases however, as the term usually indicates the amount of emissions generated trough the actions of people, not only the total amount of energy use is important, but the way how the energy has been produced as well (eg from fossil fuels or renewable resources).

An alternative definition of the carbon footprint is the total amount of carbon dioxide attributable to the actions of an individual (which includes emissions through their energy use, but other unforeseen emissions as well) over a period of one year. This definition underlies the personal carbon calculators. The term owes its origins to the idea that a footprint is what has been left behind as a result of the individual's activities. Carbon footprints can either consider only direct emissions (typically from energy used in the home and in transport, including travel by cars, airplanes, rail and other public transport), or can also include indirect emissions (including CO2 emissions as a result of goods and services consumed). Bottom-up calculations sum attributable CO2 emissions from individual actions; top-down calculations take total emissions from a country (or other low-level entity) and divide these emissions among the residents (or other participants in that entity).

if you want to calculate your carbon footprint jus go to this site

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculato...

dont forget to choose me as the best answer

hope this helped you :)

Answer 2

Definition of Carbon Footprint:

"The total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). "

To calculate a families carbon footprint you have to measure  the CO2 emission of car/cars, the generation of CO2 by heating ( electricity, coal, gas, oil ), the quantity of CO2 needed for production and transport of all you consume ( food, clothes, paper, cosmetics etc. ) f. e.

You can chose some typical time frames ( winter > more heating, summer > higher use of your car f.e. ) and annualize the results.

This site shows examples:

http://timeforchange.org/what-is-a-carbo...