Is There a Light at The End of The Tunnel ?

In the Ted Talk Three Steps to Cut Your Carbon Footprint 60% Today, Jackson Carpenter proves that climate change is not a lost cause. He explains in this Ted Talk that lowering one's carbon footprint is much easier than it seems. Carbon is completely natural and if it wasn’t on Earth, this planet would not be able to support life at all. Carbon that is already part of the natural carbon cycle, aka green carbon, does not cause climate change.

Climate change is caused by the burning of carbon energy from prehistoric times (fossil fuels) and releasing it back into the atmosphere where it has no place to go. The use of fossil fuels is one of the many causes of climate change. We will eventually run out of fossil fuels and we can make the switch to green carbon. Just about anything we make out of fossil carbon, we can make out of green carbon.  

The Carbon Cycle

Jackson Carpenter explained that we could cut 60% of our carbon footprint by doing only three things. The three steps he laid out were electricity, heating and transportation.

Switching to renewable forms of electricity such as solar, hydropower and wind energy can cut your carbon footprint by 15%.

Heating your home with electricity or using a green carbon product called bio-heat that you can put in your furnace can cut your carbon footprint by 17%.

And finally transportation, if you get an adapter you can turn your car into what is called a flex fuel vehicle that runs on ethanol (a source of green carbon) you can cut your carbon footprint by 28%. Totalling to 60% of carbon emissions cut.

This Ted Talk felt very uplifting and gave me a lot of hope that there are things we can do to fight climate change. I also really liked the way Jackson Carpenter explained the carbon cycle and how fossil fuels are contributing to the overall warming of the Earth. What are some other ways besides what Jackson Carpenter said in his Ted Talk that we could lower our carbon footprint ? 

Let me know what you think !

-AJ

3/17/25