"This is for the polar bears!"
This phrase quickly became ubiquitous in my room as I spent the last two weeks trying in vain to reduce my carbon footprint. Some people may believe that global warming is "just God hugging us real close," but I prefer to jump on the eco-bandwagon. Getting on the bandwagon was relatively easy; staying on it was what proved to be challenging.
This was not my first foray into the carbon-footprint-calculator domain. Two years ago, I was informed by the Global footprint network, www.footprintnetwork.org, that if everyone lived like me, they would need somewhere between four and five planets to sustain everyone. Apart from making me feel like a horrible human being, the Web site also provided tips on how to lower my carbon footprint. As I tried to implement some of the tips, I began to realize that some habits really are hard to break.
Rather than staying on a constant course toward greening my life, my carbon footprint fluctuated depending on the season. The summer was particularly difficult. I spent last semester riding my bike everywhere. I then spent last summer driving an SUV that gets about 16 miles a gallon everywhere. In an attempt to counterbalance all the damage I caused driving, I tried driving around without air conditioning. Usually I would make it about two blocks before the windows went back up. Eco-friendly tip No. 1: Internships should do away with business casual, because it is very difficult to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions caused by your car's air conditioner when you are forced to wear a suit in August.
The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that livestock production generates nearly one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than transportation. When I told my mom this summer that I no longer eat meat more than once a day, she gave me the same look she gives me when I try to explain to her why I don't like it when my food touches.
Having spent a summer systematically undoing all of the green things I had done in the previous months, I decided to attempt to get back on track this semester. I took a big step my first week at Boston College - replacing my addiction to water bottles with a shiny new accessory, my metal Sigg can. According to www.Treehugger.com, approximately 1.5 million barrels of oil - enough to run 100,000 cars for a whole year - are used to make plastic water bottles. I then proceeded to purchase reusable shopping bags from Trader Joe's before realizing just how expensive it is to buy organic food. Eco-friendly tip No. 2: Shaw's sells reusable bags that are just as environmentally healthy and about half the cost. (BC Dining also now makes reusable bags that boast their catchy slogan, so naturally I had to get one of those too.)
Feeling that I was already making progress, I came up with my brilliant-at-the-time idea to re-measure my carbon footprint and chronicle my attempts to lower it in this column. Right from the beginning this proved to be more challenging than I thought it was going to be. For starters, I had to guess on a few questions, such as how much I spend on electric bills each year, since I go from a house where I thankfully do not pay the bills to a residence hall where I thankfully do not pay the bills.
The good news is that my carbon footprint had gone down to 3.8. The bad news is that two weeks later, it is still 3.8. I had set fairly realistic goals for myself, for instance, changing my long hot showers to short cold showers (which use less energy). While I ultimately succeeded in cutting the time I spend in the shower in half, I did not always do so well when it came to lowering the water temperature. Eco-friendly tip No. 3: No matter how many times you remind yourself of the polar bears and their melting icebergs, trying to take a cold shower when you are already cold to begin with is never a successful endeavor.
In the end, I found myself forgetting to do simple things like unplugging my cell phone charger and turning off my laptop before running off to class. Usually, I would come back to my room, realize that I had failed to do these things, and mutter something about my carbon footprint. I was still wasting energy, just now I felt guilty about it.
I could have lied about the results of my little experiment, but then the only thing that would have been reduced these past two weeks would have been my journalistic integrity. Instead I have opted to come clean, hoping that by publicly admitting to my failure, I will give myself the necessary encouragement/sense of shame to do better next time.
Be the first to comment on this article!