Why Your Carbon Footprint Matters (Blog Action Day 09)

For Blog Action Day 09, I was approached by the World Wildlife Fund about their “Act for Our Future” campaign and asked to include them in this post. As a Veterinarian and an environmentalist, I am happy to do so. But instead of talking about what they do, I want to make this post about you.

Do I Really Count?

Over the years I’ve met so many people who have told me they don’t think they can make a difference; that their individual efforts could not amount to much and that it was so dispiriting to even try when they saw how industries brought their financial guns to bear on Washington, D.C. through their lobbyists.

And I would be lying if I didn’t say that I have felt that same disappointment and cynicism. Sometimes it is challenging to think that any one of us has any power to affect the kind of change that’s needed.

But You’re Not Alone

You may not get together with hundreds or thousands of people on the Mall in D.C. to protest or even dozens of people at your local city park, but what you do as an individual matters. If you’re composting, buying local, buying fair trade, ridesharing, recycling, adopting a shelter animal or just picking up and disposing of someone’s discarded cigarette, you’re helping. And the cumulative effect of all of us individuals helping is making a difference.

The Ozone Layer May Be Healing

Once upon a time, a number of people didn’t believe there was damage being done to the ozone layer by chlorofluorocarbons. Then they didn’t think that all CFC’s needed to be banned (see previous link). But they were all wrong. Now it seems that the early efforts of individual scientists to report facts on this phenomenon as well as the willingness of world leaders to take fairly quick action on it may be paying off.

Climate change continues to be disputed by some but even some of the worst offenders have begun to change direction. This is because individual voices have flowed together to create a river that governments and industry can’t help but hear.

And that is the point: your individual efforts on behalf of reducing your carbon footprint will reverberate in all of the areas affected, which is pretty much everywhere, from the wildlife habitats to the ozone and beyond. Never doubt that. But your efforts will go farther if, besides making changes to your own life, you lend your voice to the chorus calling for climate change legislation. Just as with the ozone layer, many individual voices can make a difference in the way we live in and affect the future of our planet.

Please join ZoomPool and the WWF in acting for our future by making your voice heard by your government representatives.