Reducing your Carbon Footprint

Background

Since the start of the industrial revolution, humans have been pushing burning fossil fuels at a rate that is changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere, significanly increasing the CO2 concentration. The increase in the CO2 content has a warming effect as more of the suns radiation is retained within the atmosphere.

The warming climate has some consequences for life on earth.

• Melting glaciers
• increased droughts in some areas
• increase in storm severity in other areas
• warming oceans
• acidification of oceans

What you can do

We all have a responsibility to reduce our carbon footprint.

Here are some suggestions:

• Drive less
• Fly less
• Use less electricity (each kWh supplied by ESKOM pushes 1kg of CO2 into the atmosphere

References

For further reading on the subject:

The International Panel on Climage Change (United Nations)

Reducing Plastic Waste

Background

Plastic has become the go-to material for mankind. A large percentage of our plastic is used once and then discarded, sitting for years on the waste dump. This material makes it way into the ocean, polluting the environement and harming wild-life.

What you can do

While plastic is convenient, there are often natural products that are more cost effective.

• Take shopping bags with you to the store
• Replace products with long lasting plastic, re-cyclable plastic or natural products

References

For further reading on the subject:

The International Panel on Climage Change (United Nations)