There are different ways of determining your car’s carbon footprint. But why is this important? Global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect that greenhouse gases are having on the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas and the major emitter of this gas is motor vehicles. Global warming is causing climate change that is responsible for such things as flooding, food insecurity, devastation of coral reefs and marine animals, melting of the North Pole and the South Pole, rising sea levels, waterborne diseases, and other effects. Some of the effects of global warming are permanent and there is need for governments and individuals to be active in combating the phenomena. Most governments, including the United States government, tend to have protectionist policies and so it is up to individuals to rescue the planet – an example of what you can do is to reduce your car’s carbon footprint.

So, what is a car’s carbon footprint? This is the total set of GHG or greenhouse gases that your car produces. It is expressed in terms of carbon dioxide or its equivalent to other greenhouse gases that are emitted. You determine your car’s carbon footprint using a carbon footprint calculator. Many of such calculators are available online and offline and they give estimates that help you determine your car’s carbon dioxide emission vis-à-vis the emission of the average car. The calculator also indicates areas where you can improve to reduce your car’s carbon dioxide emission. With most carbon footprint calculators, the assumption is that one gallon of gasoline produces twenty pounds of carbon dioxide.

There are personal greenhouse gas emissions calculators that are meant for general measurement of emissions. These can be used with your car, with your home, or with a commercial building. You can buy the calculator or you can do calculations online. Online personal greenhouse gas emissions calculators are more advantageous because you end up spending less, they are convenient, and they have error correction capabilities.

If you do not have a carbon footprint calculator because of financial constraints or for any other reason, you can determine your car’s carbon footprint by making assumptions. If your car is emitting a lot of black smoke, then it has a high carbon footprint. This is also the case when the car is not running properly and when you are driving too fast.

You can determine your car’s carbon footprint by going to the agency offices of the EPA or the Environmental Protection Agency in your state. They will advice you on how to lower your carbon dioxide emission. You should visit the website http://www.epa.gov for important facts about reducing your car’s carbon footprint and on information on how to determine your car’s carbon footprint.

From www.ghgprotocol.org/calculation-tools/all-tools, you will get a free guide on how to determine your car’s carbon footprint. You can choose between PDF documents that have guidelines on how you can do hand calculations of your car’s carbon footprint and spreadsheets that allows you to enter your values straightaway.

There government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, that have information on environmental health concerns across the country. It is important to know the effects of the major environmental health concerns so that you can see the seriousness of taking action. The website of EPA, http://www.epa.gov, and the websites of FDA, NIEHS, and other federal agencies such as the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry or ATSDR, have information on the effects of environmental health concerns.

A major environmental health concern is global warming. This is caused by the greenhouse effect on the planet’s atmosphere due to greenhouse gasses. This has led to rise in sea levels, increased cases of flooding, destruction of coral reefs and the subsequent death of marine life, destruction of ecosystems and subsequent migration of animals, and prolonged draught. The effects of global warming have been heavily felt in Africa and other developing countries – this is ironical because they contribute the least to global warming. These are countries that already had problems with food security, and these countries cannot adapt easily due to lack of funds and expertise. The food insecurity has led to malnutrition and death. The increase in sea level and the floods have led to death and destruction of property and infrastructure and the increase in cases of waterborne diseases. The migration of animals due to destruction of ecosystems means they bring human and animal diseases to new places.

Another of the major environmental health concerns is the damping of toxic waste. This has led to the contamination of toxic waste to aquifers and other water sources. This has led to Cancer Clusters and the spread of other diseases. Some effects are so severe that mothers are having still births and others are giving birth to deformed babies generations after the first case.

Air pollution is a major environmental health concern. Air pollution is caused by the release of toxic substances into the atmosphere by industries, by cars, by wildfires, and/or by the burning of waste. This leads to the mixture of toxic gases with the air we breathe and this causes breathing problems and eye problems. Air pollution is also causing acid rain – this is harmful to the skin and it contaminates the food and the water sources, leading to all kinds of medical problems.

Mold, although not as serious as water and air pollution, is still a significant environmental health concern. Mold grows in moist places and it can lead to worsening of Asthma. It also leads to other problems such as throat irritation, nasal stuffiness, skin and eye irritation, and coughing.

Another major environmental health concern is improper disposal of waste. This leads to vector control issues, including the control of flies, cockroaches, mosquitoes, and rodents such as rats. These animals can transmit pathogens from one home to the next and they can lead to serious outbreaks. This can be remedied by recycling of all waste that is not bio degradable.

Finally, another of the major environmental health concerns, noise pollution, causes psychological problems and ear problems.

Through such links as Environmental Protection Agency’s advantages of recycling, many people now know that it is important to recycle, but there is ignorance on how this is done, on what can be recycled, and on where it is done. This leads to people failing to recycle even when they want to and/or even when there is a recycling plant nearby.

To recycle, you should start by calling the Department of Public Works in your county or the local recycling center for information on what they recycle. For state recycle info, you can also call 1-800-CLEANUP. You can also do online research on the recycling plants near where you live and what they recycle.

Once this is done, the next step in recycling is to sort the garbage according to where it is going. Plastics, metals and glass should go in different piles and whatever is not being recycled should be placed in the garbage bin. After sorting, clean the recyclable piles as well as you can. In most cases, recycling plants have collection points, but in some cases they can collect the recyclable items from your home. You should note that different categories of waste also have sub-categories. As an example, plastic containers are in two types. Type one plastics include carpets, auto parts, and industrial paints, and type two plastics include engine oil bottles, trash cans, and detergent bottles.

You should recycle your old car instead of it taking up space in your garage or yard. Recycling a car starts with finding a junk yard – you might even get some money out of it. You can find junk yards in your area through the yellow pages or through online research. The process should be comparing quotes so that you can get the best price, preparing the car by removing everything important, making sure your car’s title is in order since most junk yards want to avoid cases of stolen cars, and then taking your car to the junk yard. Recycling old cars is all about the removal and the sale of different parts and the recycling of recyclable parts such as plastics and metals.

It is hard to get rid of used batteries, but you can pay companies such as Batteries Plus stores to recycle the battery for you. You can contact them thorough http://www.batteriesplus.com and you will have to pay 85 cents per pound, but this varies from company to company. RadioShack and Office Depot and RadioShack accept rechargeable batteries such as Lithium Ion batteries and Nickel Cadmium that you do not need.

To recycle books, you should first consider used bookstores or online markets such as http://www.amazon.com. You can also recycle them by donating to libraries and/or thrift stores.

To recycle your computer, consider giving it to charity or a school. However, you should not donate computers that are broken or obsolete – this is considered damping of toxic electronic waste. In 20 states, and this number is increasing, legislation has been passed that requires manufacturers to recycle their own computers. However, this will cost you about $20 that goes to shipping and the actual recycling.

Other items such as clothes, mobile phones, eyeglasses, fluorescent bulbs, and paint, among others, are also recyclable. You can get more information on EPA’s website http://www.epa.gov.

Individuals can get personal greenhouse gas emission calculators to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions. These gasses include methane, carbon dioxide, and chlorofluorocarbons. There are many reasons you should have a personal greenhouse gas emission calculator.

Personal greenhouse gas emission calculators such as EPA’s Personal Greenhouse Gas Calculator help you track how much energy you are saving. This is not only important in preventing the problems associated with emission of greenhouse gasses such as global warming, it also helps in the success of your business because energy takes up a large chunk of the profits. When you use a personal greenhouse gas emissions calculator, you can compare different energy options – this will help you make a decision on the best approach.

Personal greenhouse gas emissions calculators can be used in offices to determine how green the office is and to determine how green it can be. Calculators such as the one found on Xerox’s Web site provides office managers with actionable recommendations to help them achieve their goals. Such calculators employ document assessment research and proprietary algorithms to generate data on the company’s products such as copiers and printers – regardless of who supplied the equipment. Managers can use such calculators to detect opportunities to use paper economically.

Personal greenhouse gas emissions calculators are used to benchmark buildings. Building benchmarking is the comparison of a building with others throughout the United States. Building benchmarking should be done regularly because new, more energy efficient energy systems are being developed everyday. The energy performance for commercial buildings is rated from 1-to-100. This information helps you determine what you need to do to be energy efficient. For more information on how and/or why this is done, follow this link – Energy Star.

Personal greenhouse gas emissions calculators are used by individuals to easily and quickly translate greenhouse gas reductions from units typically used to report greenhouse gas reduction such as metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, into terms that the layman can easily understand, such as the equivalent number of motor vehicles off the road in a year. This is important because many people do not understand the lingo and this leads to less involvement.

A personal greenhouse gas emissions calculator can be used by individuals to measure their car’s carbon footprint and their home’s carbon footprint. The major greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, is produced by the burning of fossil fuels and motor vehicles are the major culprits. With a personal greenhouse gas emissions calculator, you can determine how to lower your carbon footprint and if a significant number of people were to do this, it would significantly reduce the effects of global warming. Homes are a major culprit in that a lot of energy is used. With a personal greenhouse gas emissions calculator, you will be able to use greener energy.

When people use personal greenhouse gas emissions calculators, they will be in a position to demand that action be taken by the government. Many people are not taking part in combating global warming or demanding for government action, simply because they are ignorant on the same.

The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, has an Environmental Center for High School Students. This was created to serve varying purposes aimed at sensitizing high school kids on environmental issues and engaging them on the same. Detailed information on what EPA’s Environmental Center for High School Students is all about is contained in this link; EPA Student Center.

One role of EPA Environmental Center for High School Students is to educate high school students about EPA. EPA is involved in the sustainability of ecosystems, in forecasting and modeling of air quality, in the monitoring of water quality, and in various other roles.

The EPA Environmental Center for High School Students sensitizes high school students about health and safety. The student center gives information on various health concerns related to degradation of the environment. Through the center, you will get links on related pages on the EPA website and other credible websites such as pages on asthma, pages on air quality in different states by the American Lung Association, pages on how to live healthy, and pages on the health effects of secondhand smoke. You will also get links related to pollutants such as pages on how to take action to lower radon levels, pages on ground water contaminants and their risks, pages on Lead from the National Lead Information Center, pages on the negative effects of Mercury, pages on why ozone is good in the atmosphere and bad when near you, pages on Ultraviolet Index and how you can reduce the risk of overexposure to the sun’s rays, and pages on how to use pesticides safely and the dangers of failing to do so.

The EPA Environmental Center for High School Students sensitizes high school students about what they can do to protect the environment in their neighborhood. Students get links to relevant pages such as pages on what different groups are doing in different parts of the country, pages on air pollution in different parts of the country, pages that connect like-minded teens, pages on different databases such as the EPA database, and pages on how to keep the school environment environmentally safe.

EPA’s Environmental Center for High School Students also sensitizes high school students on waste, on how it can be recycled and how to handle hazardous waste and solid waste safely, and it offers relevant links. The center sensitizes students about the pollution and conservation of ground water and drinking water by offering relevant links. The center sensitizes students about the effects of pollution on ecosystems and the effect this is having on different species, ecosystem monitoring – this is also done through various relevant links. The center also sensitizes high school students on conservation and on air pollution through relevant and credible links.

The center has awards and competitions to keep high school students interested. It also has internships and scholarships for those who are luck enough. All students are encouraged to join community service projects so that they can work towards a better tomorrow since environmental degradation is threatening flora and fauna, plus our own livelihoods.

People need to be sensitized on the devastating effects of climate change on their health and on the environment before they can be told what to they can do to stop it. Climate change has been brought about by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. This has been over the past few decades – it is scary to imagine what might happen in a few hundred years should what is happening continue.

Climate change has led to the global increase in temperatures. This is because greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, among others, have created a greenhouse effect on the atmosphere, trapping the heat within the planet. This has led to an increase in the frequency and the intensity of extreme weather. The draughts are more severe and the ice caps are melting. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the severe draughts have led to scarcity of drinking water for animals and man alike and a decrease in food production. This effect is felt more in Africa and other poor countries that already had food security issues and that do not have sophisticated water harvesting and irrigation systems. Ironically, it is these countries that contribute least to global warming – the richer countries can easily adapt to the consequences of global warming.

The increase in temperatures has led to rising sea levels. This is as a direct result of the melting of ice in the South Pole, but more so, on the North Pole. This has led to reduction of land mass in some islands and main lands and some islands have been completely submerged. It has also led to an increase in waterborne diseases.

According to Climate and Global Change, the rise in the sea-surface temperatures has led to the destruction of marine life. In the last few decades, a quarter of the world’s coral reefs have disappeared. This has led to the death of many coral animals which rely entirely on coral reefs. The death of coral reefs is also caused by carbon dioxide dissolving into the seas which makes the waters more acidic.

Higher temperatures means there is higher evaporation, meaning there is higher amounts of rainfall in some parts. This is usually preceded by draught, meaning the land is bare when the rainfall comes. This cause flooding and food insecurity in some areas since whatever is planted is destroyed. It has also led to increased cases of waterborne diseases.

Higher temperatures have to the change in ecosystems. Species have to move due to temperature changes while others die. Some of these species are endangered such as coral reefs and polar animals. Global warming is causing changes in the timing of spring events, leading to less flora and fauna on the planet.

Climate change has led to an increase in diseases such as West Nile disease, river blindness, malaria, and dengue fever. There are also more deaths from heat waves. There is an increase in allergy attacks since pollen seasons are longer. Finally, animals that are migrating due to destruction of their habitats are bringing animal and human diseases. You can use the map to see climate change impacts in your region.