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Imagine stepping onto wet cement.
As you step, you leave a footprint that remains long after the cement has hardened. You may never have left a footprint in wet cement, but all of us leave footprints. Your footprint is the effect you have on the world’s resources. It is shaped by what you do, what you eat, where you go, and how you get there. You can help conserve resources by leaving as small a footprint as you can.
How does your carbon footprint work? It’s all about how much carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere because of you. For example, when you ride in a car, your carbon footprint grows. A car’s engine emits a lot of carbon dioxide. But when you walk or ride a bike, your carbon footprint doesn’t grow. If you take a bus or train, your carbon footprint is much smaller than if you ride in a car.
So why should we care about adding to our carbon footprints? Here’s why: Carbon dioxide traps the Sun’s heat in our atmosphere. That’s called the greenhouse effect. It’s the main cause of climate change. Climate change leads to changes on Earth that can cause droughts, floods, habitat loss for plants and animals, and a rise in sea level.
Carbon Footprint of a Cheeseburger...
Cars aren’t the only things that add to a carbon footprint. Practically everything does—even a cheeseburger. To figure out the carbon footprint of a cheeseburger, let’s add up the energy demands of each part:
Growing and milling the wheat for the bun
Growing the tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers
Pickling the cucumbers to make pickles
Growing feed for the beef cattle
Feeding the cows that provide the milk for the cheese
Preparing and freezing the meat
Storing and transporting the ingredients of the cheeseburger
Cooking the cheeseburger
Running the restaurant where you buy the cheeseburger
Researchers in Sweden looked into this. They found that just one cheeseburger has a carbon footprint of about eight pounds of carbon dioxide. How many cheeseburgers are eaten in the U.S. in one year? Enough to leave a carbon footprint at least as big as that left by all the SUVs now on the road.
▲ About 30 to 40 percent of all food gets thrown out. Where does it go? Into landfills, where it sends carbon dioxide and methane gas into the atmosphere as it decomposes. What if we could do something useful with all that food?
The average person in the United States throws out about 185 pounds of plastic every year. (Think soda bottles, grocery bags, straws, and scores of other objects.) Where does it go? Much of it ends up in the oceans, where it harms or kills animals and transports pollutants. What if we could do something useful with all that plastic?
Maybe we can.
In January 2020, scientists at Rice University announced a process that turns carbon-based materials like food, plastic, coal, and even rubber tires to graphene, a material thought to be about 200 times stronger than steel. Adding just a small amount to plastic, concrete, and metals increases the strength of these materials significantly.
Until now, graphene has been too expensive to use this way. But a new process, called “flash graphene,” changes that. The process involves heating the carbon-based materials to about 5000°F for less than a second. In that small amount of time, two things happen. The non-carbon materials disappear, and the carbon turns to graphene. The process is fast and cheap.
What’s the big deal? Using carbon-based materials to make graphene means less carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. And the big winner is us.
Your Part
There are many ways to cut down your carbon footprint. One way is to use less energy. Another is to eat foods that require less energy for their production and delivery.
▲ The way we light our homes and offices is changing. Compact fluorescent bulbs, or CFLs, use 75 percent less energy than standard bulbs. Plus, they last longer. Light emitting diode bulbs, or LED bulbs, use even less energy and last even longer. But they cost more. Talk with adults in your home about using CFLs or LEDs.
▲ A/C and heat are great inventions. But there’s no need to keep a home freezing in summer and boiling in winter. Ask adults to keep the indoor temperature at 75°F in summer. Similarly, keeping it at 68°F in winter is a good practice.
Even the way your furniture is arranged in a room matters. Help move chairs and sofas away from radiators and other heat sources. That way, the heat can go into the room, and it won’t be absorbed by the furniture.
What you eat has a big impact on your carbon footprint. How and where it’s grown are just the start. Packaging and moving it from where it’s grown to where you are takes a lot of energy—and can cause a lot of pollution. How can you help? Plant a vegetable garden. Talk with adults who buy your food about choosing food that is grown locally (within 100 miles of home).
▲ Processed foods, which are frozen, canned, or packaged, carry a big carbon footprint. Eating fresh food reduces your carbon footprint. How can you do that? Choose a baked potato instead of potato chips. Instead of buying apple slices in a bag, eat a whole apple, or ask an adult to cut it up for you. Don’t forget to wash that apple!
