Gabriela Ubeda, Sao Paulo, Brazil: My Carbon Footprint

Environment   Oct 24, 2020 by Gabriela Ubeda

The carbon-footprint calculator is one of the most essential tools to use because it truly shows how helpful or harmful you are to our planet and ecosystems. In my opinion, at the same time it can be shocking, it can be decisive when it comes to making a change in your routine or not.

When I saw my results last year, I decided not to only learn about sustainability and climate change, being a passive learner, but to make real modifications in my lifestyle, being an active learner. I began to be more engaged in this topic and to disseminate to the others the idea that the climate crisis is not distant from us as we usually think. It is nearer than we believe, and that’s why everyone should start taking it seriously. 

Even though my carbon footprint this year is better than last year’s, I still have a lot to improve in my life. Unfortunately, my results were twice the average in my country. I believe that one of the reasons why I got this result was some trips I made last year to visit other countries. Therefore, from now on, I intend to travel more to places near my city and use cleaner methods to travel, in order to compensate for the huge amount of CO2 I emitted last year. 

Another factor that contributed to my carbon footprint was my diet. On the contrary of transportation, the amount of CO2 emitted because of food choices are very similar to the average of Brazil. I believe that’s because we are a country with a strong culture of eating meat and processed food, and it reverberates to our everyday life. However, I think that, even though being difficult, it is something we can change if we are persistent, besides agriculture and livestock being a sector that can be changed with the technology we have nowadays.

With that being said, I truly believe that basic acts can make a change in the future. If everybody commits to help our planet, there is hope. As I was not satisfied with my results this year, I really expect that in 2021, it will be different.


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1 Comment(s)

AHSofChungHsingTW-2
Dec 25, 2020

Hi,my name is Ally. I am from Taiwan.


Before reading your blog, I didn't know that travel will significantly increase the carbon footprint, especially flying. Taiwan’s food culture is also one of the reasons that Taiwan’s per capita carbon emissions are the highest in Asia. Each person eats 432.5 grams of meat per day, producing 5.7 kg of carbon, accounting for 29% of the total daily carbon emissions. Although environmental protection awareness is high and many people know ways to reduce carbon, surveys show that some people still lag behind in carbon reduction actions. I saw a news report a few days ago and found that Brazil’s deep-rooted food culture is also really difficult to change, but I believe that as long as we are not giving up, we can one day improve this difficult situation.


As a member of a global village,  environmental protection is every citizen's right and obligation, and everyone must carry out this mission. I hope you will be able to achieve your goals in 2021. Thank you for reading this review.


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