Tree-planting to offset carbon emissions: no cure-all


Ammonia for fuel cells

Fuel cells are pollution-free power sources that convert chemical energy to electricity with high efficiency and zero emissions. Fuel cell cars, trucks, and buses would allow people to travel long distances with convenient ...

Making microbes that transform greenhouse gases


Humanity's next test: feed 10 billion without ruining Earth

Experts Friday began negotiating the most comprehensive scientific assessment ever of the role the land we live off plays in climate change, expected to highlight the stark choices humanity faces to feed 10 billion people ...

New paper points to soil pore structure as key to carbon storage

Alexandra Kravchenko, Michigan State University professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, and several of her colleagues recently discovered a new mechanism determining how carbon is stored in soils ...

Well-meaning climate measures can make matters worse

Lifestyle changes can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and help protect nature. While some actions offer great potential, some aren't as effective as we think and may even require more land and water, such as shifting ...

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Carbon footprint

A carbon footprint is "the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product" (UK Carbon Trust 2008). An individual, nation, or organization's carbon footprint is measured by undertaking a GHG emissions assessment. Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it.

Carbon offsets, or the mitigation of carbon emissions through the development of alternative projects such as solar or wind energy or reforestation, represent one way of managing a carbon footprint.

The concept and name of the carbon footprint originates from the ecological footprint discussion. The carbon footprint is a subset of the ecological footprint.
