Reduce Your Carbon Footprint!

Because tackling climate change requires dramatic reductions in GHG emissions at the
societal and global levels, it's not surprising that most conversations about individuals and climate change focus on what individuals should be doing to reduce their GHG emissions.

That said, there is little evidence that voluntary emissions reductions by individuals can scale to influence climate change outcomes. Given the limited time and resources most of us have, the question we should be asking ourselves is: "where can I make the biggest difference?" The answer may very well be NOT to focus all or even most of your attention on "personal decarbonization." That’s why we treat reducing your carbon footprint as just one of the options to consider.

But the situation is more psychologically complicated than we’ve made it sound. If you don’t pay any attention to your carbon footprint at all, does that suggest that are you likely to take climate change less seriously, and be less likely to engage in other activities with a potentially greater impact? That’s why we suggest thinking about your carbon footprint as a necessary but not sufficient category of individual action. In terms of ways you can reduce your carbon footprint, that’s a huge topic in and of itself. To help you explore your footprint reduction options, we’ve created another micro-site:

Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

Check it out to dig deeper into the topic.