Brooks, Kristen

The greenhouse effect is something that influences the earth’s climate through various trace elements throughout the atmosphere, as well as solar radiation. There are four main gasses that occupy about 99.5% of the atmosphere, which are nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. However, within those trace amounts of remaining elements in the atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, and ozone; these elements are the most important greenhouse gasses. (www.esrl.noaa.gov) While they make up a small percentage of the Earth’s atmosphere, they are extremely influential because there is an imbalance of radiation which makes it impossible to sustain a suitable environment for any living organism.

When we look at the atmosphere and the elements that affect it, we have to looks towards carbon and the carbon cycle. If we briefly look into what happens during the cycle, we’ll see that carbon atom within the molecule moves through reservoirs, where it is recycled through natural processes (www.esrl.noaa.gov). Even though not all greenhouse gases contain carbon atoms, they are the greatest concern to the climate. It is firmly believed that the steady increase of carbon in the atmosphere is due to human intervention, because throughout the industrial revolution, we began to burn more fossil fuels, which releases the carbon back into the atmosphere. Now, due to humans creating cars, factories, nuclear plants, and other machinery (The Economist). The rate of carbon being reintroduced back into the atmosphere is happening at unparalleled rates, and the C02 levels have increased 38% by 2009. As of today, there is roughly 0.04%ppm of C02 in the atmosphere and we can tell that there is a massive increase in the atmosphere because of the consistent rise in temperatures across the globe, and the melting of the ice caps (The Economist). With the ice caps melting, the water temperature increases as well, which makes the ocean acidity increase with C02, which destroys the oceanic environment and kills the ecosystem for all the ocean life. If there was no buffering effects, there simply would be no way to sustain life in the ocean at all.

When I did the cool climate survey, I learned that my total carbon footprint was 30.4 tons co2/year, which is 32.4% better than the average household here in the US, with 2 people living in the household with similar incomes. It honestly says that there are 0 total reductions, but I still think I could probably drive less. I live close enough to DVC’s campus that I could walk instead of drive, and I probably throw away more things than I need, or learn to recycle better. My family only takes one trip every couple a years to Costa Rica to visit our family. I still live at home and help my mom with bills, but we could probably stand to buy less food since we usually end up having to waste some of it. Other than that, my mom and I generally don’t spend too much on just stuff. Outside of sharing this information with my mom, I can start spreading the word to my friends and family, and even have them take their own carbon footprint surveys. That way the word spreads through the community a little bit.