{"id":125,"date":"2024-11-11T10:36:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T10:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/keira-gratton\/?p=125"},"modified":"2024-12-20T12:52:11","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T12:52:11","slug":"why-i-stopped-caring-about-my-carbon-footprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/keira-gratton\/2024\/11\/11\/why-i-stopped-caring-about-my-carbon-footprint\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Stopped Caring About My Carbon Footprint"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

^ Image credit: CDD20, Pixabay, CC0 1.0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 2024, I\u2019m officially putting my foot down on tracking my carbon footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, that probably seems like a pretty ironic thing to read on an environmental blog. But, the idea of having a \u2018carbon footprint\u2019, or achieving carbon neutrality, doesn\u2019t have the green beginnings you\u2019d assume.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like me, you probably first heard of a carbon footprint in school, or on one of the many apps which now features a carbon calculator. The term is defined by The Nature Conservancy<\/span><\/a> as \u201cthe total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our actions,\u201d and is the most popular method of measuring our climate impact. It\u2019s something that I was pretty concerned about for around a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Screengrab of Trainline carbon calculator.
Image credit: Keira Gratton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I seriously considered not pursuing my driver\u2019s license, and going to University in my hometown, all over concerns that I would be travelling too much. The knowledge of how much my carbon emissions were contributing to global warming haunted me every time I went on holiday abroad, drove to a friend\u2019s house, or even used ChatGPT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the end, I did get that car I wanted, I\u2019m currently saving for a girls\u2019 holiday this summer, and I\u2019m using ChatGPT to generate this article. Ok, that last bit was a joke, but I am serious about having changed my mindset around carbon footprints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst the idea of a carbon footprint was coined in the 1992 works on William Rees<\/span><\/a>, the term was popularised by the 2003 British Petroleum Ad campaign<\/span><\/a>, Beyond Petroleum<\/em>. The rebrand was devised by public relations and marketing agency Ogilvy and Mather, and urged people to reduce their individual carbon emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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