Hello!

 

Image Credit: @Elleandthebirds

Hello! And welcome to my new blog Counting Carbon: A Journey. It's a place where I plan to explore my carbon footprint, and share my ongoing journey to live a more sustainable life so that it can hopefully be useful to others!

Just to say a little big about myself, my background is in astronomy, so I'm really passionate about collecting data, digging into it to try to make some sense. As a result, some of my posts will be somewhat technical, although I'll try to stick to my training as an educator to keep it understandable to a broad audience.

Many of the ideas swimming around my head that led I plan to collect into this blog were inspired from reading Being the Change by Peter Kalmus and constructing a life that's at harmony with your values. Now, some of you might say, "What's the point? Climate change is too big for any individual to make a difference in; we need big, policy-wide changes.", which I totally agree with! Any solution to climate change will have to be big, and just hoping that other people will decide to take major action is not realistic. But by educating ourselves about our own carbon footprints, and our impacts on the environment, we can accomplish two things: first, know what big actions will make a big difference for us. If your main source of emissions comes from flying, then a trans-national rail infrastructure might be a way to reduce those emissions. And/or putting pressure on policymakers and airlines to use fuels derived from carbon-neutral sources. The second accomplishment is social. When focusing on such a big problem such as climate change, it's easy to get discouraged, especially if the people around you are discouraged too. By making even a little bit of consistent effort in your own life, it's easier to inspire others to join, especially when advocating for policy solutions to climate change.  

Anyways, those were some of my motivations for working on this blog. As a disclaimer, this blog will not be a comprehensive guide for counting carbon for all possible types of people: it will largely focus on my individual profile. But it will hopefully have some step-by-step information that can be adapted to others' unique situations! 

For a brief outline of what to expect, the first step is always to know where you stand in terms of your carbon footprint, so that you can then figure out where you want to go. So expect some posts in the coming weeks about making a carbon budget! After that, we'll see where we go!