We decided to learn more about carbon offsetting. Carbon offsetting is a way to offset the greenhouse gas emissions that we incur. With our mom, we completed a carbon neutral calculator that gave us a score using the average expenses for our family for the year of 10.3 which was larger than average. We were surprised!

We decided we should try to be carbon neutral for one week. My brother and I walked everywhere during this week. We wouldn’t let our mom drive us to soccer or anything. We tracked what we did and wrote in a journal.

We made these changes:

• No air conditioning.
• No driving in a car (we took the bus).
• We didn’t cook any food –all of the food we ate was raw or came pre-cooked.
• We didn’t eat any meat. My brother hates beans but he ate them anyways.
• We only used electrical appliances and lights when absolutely necessary. At night we all read in the same room so that we only needed one light on.
• We switched all of the lightbulbs in the house to fluorescent lightbulbs.
• We washed our clothes and dishes by hand and hung them to dry.

After the week we re calculated our carbon usage and were close to zero (below the average). We were very proud. We each planted a tree in the yard to offset what little amount we thought we used.

What we found
We were cranky because it was too hot. It was hard to get much done. Walking takes much longer than driving to our activities. Carrying groceries back from the store was very hard. We missed foods that we enjoy. Washing clothes takes a very long time. Mom also told us that we were not really as close to zero as we thought because things like the food we ate and clothing used energy to get made and delivered to the stores. We learned that living carbon neutral is really hard if you do not have a renewable source of energy to use for the home and your car.
We are happy the week is over but we will try harder to watch our use of energy.