What's your carbon footprint?

Sustainable Riverdale

By Mary Bandziukas

When Earth Day arrived on Tuesday, how did you choose to celebrate?

Did you join a community cleanup or take a hike in the woods? Maybe you forgot.

Don't worry, it's not too late to do something that will last far beyond one day. You can choose to shrink your carbon footprint.

As you probably know, your carbon footprint measures how much you contribute to global warming. What you may not realize is how big your footprint can be. The more you learn, the easier it is to see that carbon goes beyond light bulbs, high gas mileage cars and air travel.

Every time you purchase a sweater or eat a meal, you add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The processes of production, packaging, transport and disposal all carry a cost. If you purchase items with little packaging, short transport distances or biodegradable materials, you can reduce your carbon footprint.

Eat one less serving of beef each week, and your footprint will shrink even more. Cows produce methane - lots of it. And methane is even more potent than carbon dioxide in raising the Earth's temperature.

More sophisticated ways of calculating your carbon footprint are coming online all the time. If you want to study your options, take a look at www.countdownyourcarbon.org.

Make this your year of living lightly on the earth.

Putting away your winter coat for good might sound nice on these early days of spring. But global warming is about much more than warm temperatures. Far from this simple notion, global warming is about how climate patterns - the patterns that create our fisheries, our rivers, our shorelines, our ski areas - are shifting; about how the infrastructure upon which we have built our lives and our nations is being disrupted. Crisis is not too strong a word.

Our Riverdale neighborhood gives us certain advantages in our attempts to reduce our carbon footprint. Our urban amenities mean we are not locked into an auto-dependent lifestyle. We can purchase local produce through local community supported agriculture programs. A neighborhood bulk dropoff point is in the works. Our trees and greenery absorb carbon dioxide. We have many choices. Which is yours?

Mary Bandziukas, a Queens resident, has a master's degree in urban planning with a focus on the environment. She has been a consultant with the Riverdale Nature Preservancy for the past decade.

Sustainable Riverdale will appear in the third issue of each month. It is the work of the Riverdale Nature Preservancy, done in conjunction with The Riverdale Press and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Have an issue you'd like to see addressed? E-mail newsroom@riverdalepress. com, and put Sustainable Riverdale in the subject line, or write to The Riverdale Press, 6155 Broadway, Bronx, NY 10471.

This is part of the April 24, 2008 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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