Question

we can all take tiny steps to a greener future. (turn into complex)​

Answer 1

I have been thinking a lot over the past few years about what I can do to reduce my ecological footprint. It is really not acceptable to ask others to make behavioural changes in order to improve the environment unless we are prepared to make them ourselves.

This became very clear to me in classes that I teach here at the UN University, where we have begun to ask the students and fellow lecturers to measure and share carbon footprints. The students are from all over the Asia Pacific region (and we connect via video conferencing, not by flying students or lecturers around) and the variation in footprints is quite considerable. Those living in industrialised countries tend to have considerably larger footprints than their colleagues from the industrializing world. The biggest factor is of course air travel and it is usually the lecturers, myself included, who are travelling most, either for research or to present at conferences.