Everything leaves its mark. Sounds like the introduction to a somewhat cheesy crime series, right? Except that it is... true. In fact, everything leaves its mark. Whether it's devious criminals whose perfect crime will be tracked down (usually by a life-weary detective with a deeply hidden secret), or each of us with our daily actions.
The difference is that, unlike the grandmasters of crime, we as a society are immeasurably less subtle and the signs of our activity, though inconspicuous in places, are extremely easy to trace. Particularly when we are talking about individual, collective, industrial activity or the one related to the production of energy, goods or services in the broadest sense.
What is a carbon footprint? Like really ;)
In that case, we speak of the carbon footprint phenomenon. You may have heard the phrase, but for those unfamiliar with it, it's worth making the meaning of the term clearer. Carbon footprint is, of course, a way of measuring the level of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) emitted into the atmosphere.... okay, without exaggeration, let's not turn a blog post into a lecture of organic chemistry.
No one needs a Ph.D. to understand that the carbon footprint is a method to study how much pollution ends up in the environment as a result of human actions, just as you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes or Hercules Poirot at all to know that the footprint can be measured, analyzed and conclusions drawn. And these, unfortunately, do not inspire optimism. Just recall the data from recent years.
Give me the stats!
Globally, the issue looks like this:
Annual global CO2 emissions in 2021 reached more than 36 billion tons
That's an increase of as much as 6% compared to 2020
The infamous leader of the ranking is China, where annual CO2 production per capita reaches nearly 8.4 tons
However, blood is thicker than water, so how are things in Poland?
Poland is responsible for the emission of nearly 192 million tons of CO2 in 2021
This result is as much as 11.5% higher than in the previous year
On average, one resident of our country is responsible for the emission of as much as 8.2 tons of CO2 per year
And what exactly does it all mean? No less than that, it means that we are treating our planet completely as if there is another one waiting in retreat, to which we can easily move. Unfortunately, populating Mars doesn't go very well for us. Somehow there is no atmosphere there. So, in the absence of a spare celestial body, are there any viable measures that we, as a society, can implement to improve the situation or at least stop its degradation?
"The first step to solving any problem is to realize that the problem exists."
Zig Ziglar
Ok, but what's next?
Scientists, activists and more environmentally conscious civilians have been raising the alarm for years. The rapidly escalating ecological crisis represents one of the most, and many might dare say the most urgent problem we and the generations that will come after us will face. Our response will determine what legacy will be passed on to future generations.
Of course, the best thing would be to make a series of global, structural changes to reduce emissions right away. Yes, that would be nice... However, as is usually the case, every disruptive change starts the same way: with us and you. This is the time when we need to think about what to do to simply make things better - even if we start with a solution as trivial as the ones Gleevery offers. Because it so happens that all our actions leave a trace. The good one, too. And it's worth taking advantage of it while we still can.
Next blog post: The 7 most important steps to reducing your carbon footprint.