by Bob Monty

Created on: February 23, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

Every family unknowingly drastically adds to the problem of global warming and greenhouse gas emissions everyday. On average, each person in the US annually puts out 20 TONS of carbon dioxide. 40,000 pounds of this needless, damaging gas put out into the atmosphere we all breathe for every man, every woman, and every child in this country. With about 300,000,000 US citizens, that means that the US alone puts out 12,000,000,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year! Just think about that. Our country is responsible for six billion tons of CO2.

How could I be putting out all this carbon dioxide? Well, electricity requires the burning of some kind of fossil fuel in order to get the energy, and the burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide. Think about what you did this morning. First you got up and took a 15 minute shower in hot water. Your water heater just put out several pounds of carbon dioxide. Then, you took out some milk and juice from the fridge that has been running nonstop for years. There goes a few tons of CO2. You poor that milk into your cereal and pop a piece of bread into the toaster. It runs for a couple minutes before popping out your toast. There goes a few more pounds. Oh, and you didn't unplug it? That means it's still sucking up energy out of the wall. There goes a few more. You finish you're breakfast and put your family's dishes in the dishwasher and start it up. There goes several more pounds. And you didn't even wait for more dishes to put in! That would've saved you some. Oh well. You threw out a few more. Then you drive to work in your car, while your spouse takes another car. Why didn't you go in the same one? Well, there goes twice as many pounds as you could have put out. Do you see how much you have the potential to put out in a single morning?

There are things you can do to help your personal emissions, however. Try using incandescent light bulbs. They last 10 times as long, shine much brighter, and all the while using a lot less energy than conventional bulbs. Also, try carpooling or taking mass transit more often, as opposed to driving. Recycle more, check that your tires are inflated properly, and use less hot water. Adjust your thermostat by just moving it a couple degrees down in the winter and a couple degrees up in the summer. And finally, make sure you turn off everything when you're done with it. Turning of TVs, DVD players, and computers can save you thousands of pounds of CO2 emissions.

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