• Question: Can you explain what carbon footprint is?

    Asked by anon-256955 to Siti Syuhaida on 16 Jun 2020.
    • Photo: Siti Syuhaida Mohamed Yunus

      Siti Syuhaida Mohamed Yunus answered on 16 Jun 2020:

      Carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere because of something done by people (not by nature). Doing something that burns fuel will make carbon dioxide gas in the smoke. Carbon dioxide has carbon in it.

Comments

  • Photo: Laura

    Laura commented on :

    100% as Siti said, the carbon footprint of an object, good, or service is the amount of carbon dioxide released during the production and transport of a good, or from the energy required to provide a service. For example, a banana will have a carbon footprint, as it would have required burning of fossil fuels in order for the farmer to drive a vehicle to plant, water and collect the banana, it might have needed watering (which takes energy), and then the banana would have been transported to the supermarket where you bought it, which leads to the emission of carbon dioxide, as all these things require fuel to be burnt. Even where renewable energy was used, there is still some associated carbon emission, as carbon dioxide may have been released in the manufacturing process of equipment.

    Similarly, running your laptop for an hour has a carbon footprint, because, unless powered by renewable electricity or nuclear energy, fossil fuels will have been burnt to produce electricity to power your laptop, and this produces carbon dioxide.

    Carbon dioxide is one of two main gases that is responsible for climate change, which is why people are so interested in carbon footprints.