Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Dream in Green's Retrofit Your Lifestyle campaign provides simple and effective tips for reducing your carbon footprint at home.
Each individual or household generates a carbon footprint, which in Florida is created primarily through the consumption of electricity in our homes and through our travel -- by air or automobile. An individual's carbon footprint is the total set of greenhouse gas emissions he or she is producing, either directly or indirectly.
The name is derived from carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the primary greenhouse gas causing global warming or climage change. Carbon dioxide is created through the burning of fossil fuels when we drive a car using petroleum, or use electricty that was produced from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal or petroleum. The easiest way to reduce our Carbon Footprints (and thus lessen our personal contribution to climate change) is to reduce the amount of energy we use in our homes and the amount of miles we drive our cars.
Why is this Important?
Florida's 1200 miles of coastline make it especially vulnerable to the effects of unchecked climate change. Impacts in Florida will likely include:
- Sea level rise leading to flooding of low-lying areas, erosion of beaches, loss of coastal wetlands, intrusion of salt water into water supplies, and increased vulnerability of coastal areas to storms and hurricanes.
- Some plants and animals will go extinct, some will decline or increase in population, and others will migrate to areas with more favorable conditions.
- Diseases and pests with current tropical ranges will invade Florida, as has West Nile virus and Africanized honey bees in Florida's panhandle.
- Crops and trees that need cooler climates will not grow as well in Florida, while more tropical varieties might do better.
- More severe storms and droughts would impact crop production, pests, and growth rates.
We are already experiencing the beginnings of these impacts.
What can you Do?
