Our planet's oceans provide more than half the oxygen we breathe, 100 million tons of food every year, and absorb a quarter of the carbon we emit in the atmosphere. Yet, despite this, 20 percent of the world's coral reefs have disappeared and 90 percent of the large ocean predators are gone because of overfishing. Around the globe, scientists are racing to solve a series of mysteries. Unsettling transformations are sweeping across the planet, and clue by clue, investigators around the world are assembling a new picture of Earth, discovering ways that seemingly disparate events are connected. Crumbling houses in New Orleans are linked to voracious creatures from southern China. Vanishing forests in Yellowstone are linked to the disappearance of wolves. An asthma epidemic in the Caribbean is linked to dust storms in Africa. Scientists suspect we have entered a time of global change swifter than any human being has ever witnessed.
What is your carbon footprint?
• Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 2.5 Pounds -- If you have a PB&J instead of a red-meat lunch like a ham sandwich or a hamburger, you shrink your carbon footprint by almost 3.5 pounds. That’s about 40% as much of what you’d save driving around for the day in a hybrid instead of a standard sedan. An animal product affects the environment and greenhouse gas emissions due the resources it takes to raise an animal, process the meat and ship the product.• Conserve Water: 133 Gallons -- You’ll conserve 133 gallons of water at lunch versus the average American lunch. Three PB&J’s a month will save about as much water as switching to a low-flow showerhead. • Save Land: 24 Square Feet -- Don't forget the land you save from deforestation, over-grazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution: about 24 square feet at lunch.
Climate Change Effects Due to Carbon Emission:
The adverse effects caused to environment due to carbon emission include increased frequency of extreme weather events, and variation in pattern of monsoons, rise in surface temperature, sea level rise and melting of glaciers along with other factors. Climate Change is also likely to affect agriculture and food production and result in increased incidence of vector borne diseases. The effects on human life include increase in malnutrition and consequent disorders, with implications for child growth and development; increased deaths, disease and injury due to heat waves, floods, storms, fires and droughts; increased burden of diarrhoeal disease and altered spatial distribution of some infectious-disease vectors.
Live a Low-Carbon Life
At the last Copenhagen conference Denmark, politicians and activists are fighting on making bigger cuts in carbon emission. Yes, we all looking for a big shift to have a greener world and we should understand this globally mission should be act locally. As experts say there is no time to delay with the effort to reduce carbon emissions, in these days more and more people are pursuing a low-carbon life, also known as reducing carbon footprint. Thus, how to realize a low-carbon lifestyle? Here we share with each other tips for developing low-carbon habits in daily life.
1. When buying clothes, choose those purely made with cotton. Because it will takes less carbon to produce cotton clothes. Do things such as taking reusable shopping bags to the store and setting the air conditioner at a temperature above 26 centigrade in summer.
2. On many popular social networking websites, people share tips include using the stairs and public transport more frequently than elevators or cars. Surely, it will be much better if switching to a different mode of transport—a bicycle.
3. Use less light, turn off radiators before opening windows so that we could save the electricity and energy. You will make the world a better place only if you change a light bulb or put a can of Coke or beer in recycling bin after drunk.
Those tips above really handy, so, a big compromises could be avoid to make a real difference to help the environment, for in the long run those tips will start to have an influence if we took practices accordingly.

What Is A Carbon Footprint?
A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment, and in particular climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation etc. The carbon footprint is a measurement of all greenhouse gases we individually produce and has units of tones (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent. A carbon footprint is made up of the sum of two parts, the primary footprint (shown by the green slices of the pie chart) and the secondary footprint (shown as the yellow slices). The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation (e.g. car and plane). We have direct control of these. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use - those associated with their manufacture and eventual breakdown. To put it very simply – the more we buy the more emissions will be caused on our behalf.
How Big Is Your Carbon Footprint?
Carbon footprint is a measure of the impact of our activities on the environment and in particular on climate change. Click here to see in how many ways we impact the environment. We are a consumptive society because of the abundance we enjoy due to advances in technology and production capabilities since mid 1900s. A vast majority of activities we undertake in our daily lives, as individuals, organizations and communities, affect our environment. As individuals, what we eat and drink in, how long we drive, how cool or warm we keep our homes, and how much recycle and waste we produce affects the environment. Up-size food servings, plastics containers, excessive transportation result in direct and indirect emission of CO2 and greenhouse effect. The higher the waste we produce, the more we pollute our seas and quicker we fill-in the landfills. Collectively, as business organizations and communities, how we choose to run our factories and offices, what material we use for packaging, how frequently we fly and the size of cars we drive, all affect the Mother Nature. The more we consume as businesses, the faster we deplete natural resources. By slowing down and using less of our resources will help in sustaining our environment for long.

Megacities, Mega Problems
Man's modern marvels, cities full of industry and luxury, are threatening to become the very thing that will poison the environment, and deplete the water and energy resources that rising populations feel that they are entitled to. Many experts point to the rapid growth of the world's population in the last hundred years as one of the factors that have intensified the effects of climate change that we are already beginning to see. It's important for people in developed countries to realize that no matter how many kilowatts of energy they save by replacing their incandescent light bulbs with CFLs or LEDs; no matter how many gallons of gas they save by buying hybrid cars; no matter how many pounds of carbon emissions they prevent from being released into the atmosphere by installing solar panels or wind turbines, countries like China, Ethiopia, India and Afghanistan are increasing their demand by twice that much, if not more. Instead of looking for a way around the energy and resource problems that are now starting to plague the Western world, these emerging countries are charging right ahead in search of their own piece of the "American dream". Yes, the small, individual changes listed above are important: they signal a change in perspective that might catch on in time to change the social norms of the next generation, but something more drastic is needed if we're going to be able get a handle on climate change and resource consumption in the next few decades. Although it's controversial, it's important to state: there are simply too many of us for the planet to sustain life as we know it for much longer. The large scale natural disasters we've seen in the past couple of years are the planet's way of crying out for some breathing room. No, slowing or stopping population growth will not solely eliminate the climate problem, but it would make the job easier.