Small Changes

The United States produces 1/5 of the world's CO2, releasing six billion metric tons of said gas into the atmosphere every year. However, small changes in our daily habits can have an enormous impact on our carbon footprint, and if everyone implemented these small changes, our carbon footprint could be reduced as much as 5o%! For example, changing half of all light bulbs in our home to compact fluorescents would reduce CO2 emissions from lighting by 42.4 million tons a year, or 36 percent. Turning off computers when NOT in use would cut their CO2 emissions by 8.3 million tons a year, or 50 percent! However, most of the electricity produced in the U.S. does not reach the American public and is in fact wasted, up to 83.3 million BTU's a year. (only 41.0 million BTU's of energy are used in American homes a year). This means that for every kilowatt-hour used, 2.2 are "lost" as electricity is sent over transmission lines. Thus, small changes that increase the efficiency of our electric grid would help tremendously in reducing our carbon footprint.
The article "It Starts At Home", the article from which the above information was retrieved from, tries to appeal to the American public by suggesting that very small changes would make a very big difference in our total carbon footprint. By doing this, people would be more willing to apply these small changes to their everyday life, as they wouldn't have to drastically alter their routine. This is a technique that is employed very often in "green" campaigns, such as recycling movements, etc.