The carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gasses produced
by a human, an organization, or an activity. It is primarily
calculated in units of carbon dioxide and is the sum of two parts:
the direct or primary footprint and the indirect or secondary
footprint.
The primary footprint measures the direct CO2 emissions from the
burning or chemical reaction of fossil fuels to produce heat energy
for heating / cooling buildings and transportation.
The secondary footprint measures the indirect CO2 emissions from
the whole lifecycle of the products we use, everything, for
example, copy paper, packaging and computers.
A greenhouse gas is any gas in our Earth’s atmosphere that
absorbs infrared radiation in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases
include, but are not limited to, water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2))
methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, ozone, hydro
fluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. Again,
the amount of greenhouse gases are primarily measured in units
(tons) of carbon dioxide.
The Greenhouse Gas Effect is produced as greenhouse gases allow
incoming solar radiation to pass through the Earth’s atmosphere but
prevent most of the outgoing infra-red radiation (heat) from
escaping into outer space. And, this effect of trapping heat makes
for global warming.