Our carbon footprint’s impact on climate

Weather patterns are changing, temperatures are rising, and scientists, including those from NASA, say our human byproducts are killing us slowly. It all falls in the footsteps of our carbon footprint.

A carbon footprint is a measure of the greenhouse gases produced by a human or activity. One of those gases includes carbon dioxide or CO2.

“By continuing and actually starting to study carbon dioxide that’s being released into the air, which is one of the greenhouse gases, we’ve seen that there’s been a massive increase ever since industrialization,” said Hunter Tidd, geology major.

A greenhouse gas works like a blanket for our planet, by trapping heat in our atmosphere.

“As we add CO2 to the atmosphere, it’s a greenhouse gas so it can absorb and emit infrared light which basically heats the surface of the planet and heats up our atmosphere more so than if we didn’t have excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere,” said Dr. Mara Brady, associate professor department of earth and environmental sciences.

This leads to some areas experiencing extreme wet seasons, leading to floods, landslides, and soil erosion. Other areas, like the Central Valley, have dryer dry seasons causing vegetation to die, making forests more susceptible to fires.

Through photosynthesis, plants help remove CO2 from our air and store it in their plant fibers.

“It goes through a cycle, right, so it can get stored underground in rocks and oil and gas, and then when that’s burned it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” said Brady.

This excess CO2 further contributes to the warming of our planet.

Another greenhouse gas is methane.

“Over a span of 100 years, methane is about 28 times more efficient at trapping the heat emitted by the earth than CO2,” said Dr. Matthieu Richaud, professor of environmental and earth sciences.

When we throw away our trash it goes to a landfill, where bacteria eat the leftover food and produce carbon dioxide and methane. In California, landfills emit about 40% of methane. The oil and gas industry emits about 25% to 30 % of that methane and then the rest is mostly the agriculture and farming industry. 

Many ways we get food and energy create carbon dioxide and methane.

“Having wastewater from farms can sometimes create methane, because of the waste from the animals,” said Brady.

After talking to some students at Fresno State’s Earth and Environmental Science Department, many agreed that a solution requires change on a larger scale.

“The rate at which we consume various things we kind of just realize that it’s not sustainable,” said Fang Teter, Fresno State sustainability analyst.

“It’s really a global change that has to happen. Where we’re getting our energy has to change,” said Daniel Scharton, environmental sciences student.

“There are political issues, there are different ways of thinking issues, and trying to find those people and helping them connect to the understanding that the reality that our environment is the most important thing, because without the environment, we cannot exist,” said Tidd.

We can all start somewhere. By composting our food, eating green, turning off lights and running water, and replacing grass with native plants.

Fresno State has several ways to get involved and learn sustainable practices through Fresno State Campus Climate Action and Fresno State Sustainability Club.