Shrink your footprint and save the earth

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post /Jakarta

You can count your own annual carbon emissions and be responsible by offsetting them through small measures that could ease the impacts of climate change -- from changing the light bulbs you use to planting trees in the backyard.

While on a much smaller scale than the large industries that emit tons of greenhouse gasses daily, the personal activities of the some six billion people that live on the earth also contribute to the collection of gasses trapped in the atmosphere, leading to global warming.

Frequent use of private cars, exploiting green areas for construction, regularly eating meat or leaving electrical household equipment on standby affect the climate and have led to prolonged droughts, increased rainfall, a reduction in biodiversity and a rise in climate-related diseases.

The amount of carbon you produce in a year can be determined using a carbon calculator and the result is known as your carbon footprint.

It gives an indication of your impact on the environment through the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and gas, which is measured in tons of carbon dioxide emitted per year.

The www.carboncalculator.com Web site, for instance, assesses how you can offset your carbon emissions. If, say, you cannot give up the car, it will suggest a number of trees to plant or an amount of money to donate to companies developing renewable energy sources.

It examines factors like electricity bills, travel activities, the number of people in the household and types of private vehicle, and then tallies approximately how many tons of carbon you emit per year and offers actions to offset the emissions.

Such Web sites, including others that are more region-based, encourage the public to do their share in easing the impacts on climate change caused by their daily activities, UN Ambassador for the Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific Erna Witoelar said Tuesday in a discussion to mark World Environment Day.

"I fly a lot and airplanes emit a lot of carbon. Thus I offset this by giving money to an organization of (Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate) Wangari Maathai to help her reforestation programs and others here," she said.

However green activists agreed that energy conservation was the best solution to curbing emissions while at the same time joined forces to push governments to carry out carbon-cutting programs on a far larger scale, such as the use of renewable energy instead of coal-fired generators, as well as reforestation.

Research shows many small actions can save energy. Reducing use of transportation and air conditioning, covering pans to heat the contents, recycling glass bottles and newspaper, buying food with less packaging, hanging washing out to dry rather than tumble drying and fitting energy-efficient light bulbs throughout the house all help.

Indonesia, an archipelagic nation with an agricultural backbone, stands to be affected the worst from climate change as sea level rises will cover parts of it while drought will cause food production problems.

Currently it ranks as the third biggest greenhouse gas emitter, mostly from its unbridled deforestation rate of 2.8 million hectares of land per year.

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