John Edwards has launched an effort to reduce America’s contribution to global warming by asking YOU to reduce your carbon footprint. (Your carbon footprint is the amount, in pounds, of waste carbon you put into the atmosphere annually.) He has set up ReduceYourCarbon.com for Americans to pledge to reduce their carbon footprint. We, as youth, don’t have as much leverage in this issue (unless, of course, you buy lightbulbs for your family) but you can pledge to reduce your driving by 10% or keep your car tires inflated. Of course, the other suggestions, to raise your thermostat 2 degrees in the summer and lower it 2 degrees in the winter, to weatherize your house, and replace wasteful incandescent light bulbs with more energy-efficient fluorescent ones.
Again, ReduceYourCarbon.com and JohnEdwards.com
One more idea, when visiting colleges, take the train. It avoids nasty, nasty, traffic jams where you go 2 miles in one-and-a-half hours. I have firsthand experience 
April 13, 2007 at 5:43 pm
I think this is newsworthy! Ya, I did hear about this carbon footprint reducing thing, and I think it brings about a question I have thought over a lot with people at school. Is it worth the fossil fuels used in transportation of products being recycled to recycle them? I personally think it is, but I know others who believe the cost of all the transporting and machining outweighs the benefit of recycling. What do you think?
April 13, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Well, I think it is worth it, too. Even if it is just a break-even deal, or worse, the infrastructure is still there, so that when we finally get our hands on a more sustainable method of transportation (in the near future, hopefully) we will actually be saving energy.
I have heard that recycling aluminum/steel cans is an actual net energy gain, but that recycling paper and plastic are not, but I’m sure it all actual depends on where you are relative to the actual recycling plants and how your individual recycling authority functions.
May 2, 2007 at 8:36 pm
I’m a big recycler myself, but I took an environmental ethics and leadership class and this whole issue of net gains over net losses was a big topic of discussion. Anyhow, I do believe that pledging to reduce our carbon footprint is a big deal…and I have definitely converted to flourescent light bulbs which burn cleaner and longer than traditional bulbs. One of the big projects I’m working on for Teen Dems across the state this year is the carbon offset buying, which keeps big icky companies from buying up carbon offsets that they can use to pollute. Check out http://www.carbonfund.org if you are interested.