A pair of Grade 8 students at Wallaceburg District Secondary School are doing what they can to help the environment this holiday season.
Kaitlyn Isaac and Gabrielle Findlater, both 13 from Wallaceburg, have been working on a project in Miss Richard’s geography class about reducing the carbon footprint this Christmas.
“We’re just trying to get a message out to the public that we want to lower the carbon footprint, so the global warming isn’t as high,” Findlater said.
A carbon footprint is historically defined as “the total sets of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person.”
While the total carbon footprint cannot be calculated because of the large amount of data required and the fact that carbon dioxide can be produced by natural occurrences, many steps can be taken to reduce it, including reduce, reuse, recycle, refuse.
Isaac said during their project they found a few ways to reduce the carbon footprint during the holiday’s.
“You can use a live tree instead of a fake tree because it takes the carbon dioxide out of the air,” she said. “It is also renewable and recyclable for LIVE trees. You can re-use ornaments or make ornaments because they are bad for the landfill if you throw them out.”
Findalter said they have contacted local newspapers, radio stations and the Sydenham Current to help spread the word about this concept.
Both Findlater and Isaac said they plan on practicing some of these methods during the holidays.
Photo: Gabrielle Findlater, left and Kaitlyn Isaac.
