Carbon Footprint

24.8 tons of CO2. That is my carbon footprint. 33% of that is from commuting to USF. Food and services make up more than 50% of it. These three thing are hard to cut out of my life to reduce my carbon footprint. I cant afford living on campus, so that could not be cost effective. There is no public transportation that runs from my house to USF. If I was able to live on campus, my transportation footprint would be reduced, but my housing footprint would grow. For me to try to reduce my footprint, it would cost way too much. I already have one of the best cars for the enviroment that is within my budget. I drive a civic and get about 31 miles per gallon. Not much room for improvement without spending tons of money on a hybrid, but even then they are not that much better, and replacing something by buying new rarly is a smart move for the enviroment. Right now, although i haven't been trying, i am really living as "green" as my budget allows.

One Challange

The biggest problem my friends and I will face in the next four years will be unemployment. We are in college now to get a degree to enable us to get a good job. If the economy is suffering, finding a job will be significantly more difficult. Right now, I am a computer science major. The field of computers is a huge field with plenty of jobs, so I probably wouldn't have too much of a problem finding a job, however, I am considering changing to photography. That would make it a bit harder for me to find work. There really isn't much we can personally do to curb this problem except take care of ourselves and not give up on the job search. To solve this problem, what really needs to happen is for businesses to stop outsourcing jobs and allow us Americans to hold jobs with them, even if that means less profit. Since companies will never do anything against their own self interest, the government will have to step in to provide incentive to create American jobs. Also, the minimum wage cannot be raised, or the unemployment will also rise. If companies have to pay more for the same amount of work, they will hire less people. What we can personally do is work hard to get our degrees and build a strong resume and make ourselves desirable to employers. That is all i can do at the moment to overcome the suffering economy and avoid unemployment.