In class we calculated our carbon footprint. If I lived closer to where I go to school and work, then my carbon footprint would be a lot lower because I could walk or ride a bike to at least these places. If I lived in a more urban area I would also have more access to public transpiration. Basically, I think that I need to move back to Philly and live and work there. If I lived in a city I would also have more access to locally grown food and secondhand garments and appliances. Surburban detached single family dwellings with their huge lawns and central air conditioning systems that are populated by commuters would seem to me to have the highest carbon footprints.
Why do we care about the size of our carbon footprint? Because it directly hastens global warming with will cause climate change that even developed nations are not prepared for. This climate change will not affect our generation that much probably, but does anyone care about the fates of our descendants? We'll be dead, so we will care nothing of if our descendants curse us for leaving them all of these problems, when we knew exactly what we were doing. Is our species doomed to make messes and unsuccessfully try to clean them up, or will we learn to think in the truly long-term, for the good of the species rather than the individual.
