Carbon Detective: What is Carbon Footprint?

The fog is finally settling on the COP15 and I’m not sure if it ended up clearing or further muddling the burning issue of Global Warming. Some questions are nagging me - Is global warming an issue or not? Am I part of the solution if not the problem? How do I contribute?

Garret Hardin had given an influential concept of "Tragedy of Commons" way back in 1968. The article discusses how common resources get used, misused and what could be the means to utilise these common resources. It advocates “Mutual Coercion” or legally binding behaviour as one solution. However, that is beyond my area of influence. So what can I do?

One solution to reduce misuse is by being pro-social: By being more engaged in sustainable behaviour. This solution of course implies that I cut down my use of common resources, while my neighbour needn’t! Scriptures tell me that I must be happy and content in what I have. I should be happy drinking water off the tap, and not grudge the neighbour’s bottled water sourced from the Alps. However I’m living in the times of “neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride” and aspirational products are part of the market we live in. There is no running away from these products and the fact that my neighbours will also own them. But can I adjust these aspirations? What if by adjusting them, I gain? It might not be only philanthropy, but might bestow significant personal gains.

Before getting into all this, let me first understand the carbon footprint, its significance and is there a “right size” that fits me? Carbon footprint can be for an individual, a product, an organization or a country. There are many definitions of Carbon Footprint and we will use the following for this article:
Carbon Footprint = Primary Footprint + Secondary Footprint

Where:
Primary Footprint = Green house gas (GHG) emissions from direct burning of fossil fuels. This includes electricity used at home and fuel used for cooking, operating generators and in transportation.
Secondary Footprint = GHG emissions due to the products I use. The emissions associated with the manufacture, transport and breakdown of these products.

Thus carbon footprint can be a good size to know, but unlike my shoe size, calculating it is not an exact number. It does not cover all aspects like water consumed and air polluted but nevertheless it is a good tool to start the green journey.