什麼是"碳足跡" carbon footprint?

21世紀是一個環保的世紀，全球人類都把目光轉向了環境保護的行列之中，聯合國氣候變化峯會也就環境保護方面做了全面的調研：溫室氣體排放，碳足跡，以及節能減排的討論成爲了會議的重點話題。有關專業機構還設計出一個碳足跡計算器，讓每個人都瞭解自己的行爲對環境造成的影響。那麼，這個“碳足跡”到底是什麼意思呢？通過下面的介紹，你就可以有個瞭解了。

A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). In other words: When you drive a car, the engine burns fuel which creates a certain amount of CO2, depending on its fuel consumption and the driving distance. When you buy food and goods, the production of the food and goods also emitted some quantities of CO2. Even if you heat your house with electricity, the generation of the electrical power may also have emitted a certain amount of CO2.

碳足跡指直接或間接支持人類活動所產生的溫室氣體總量，通常用產生的二氧化碳噸數來表示。換句話說，你開車的時候，發動機在燃燒汽油的同時會釋放出一定量的二氧化碳，這個量由耗油量和行駛里程決定。你購買食物和商品的時候，生產食物和商品的過程也會釋放出一定量的二氧化碳。就算你家的房子是用電採暖，電能產生的過程也是釋放二氧化碳的。

Your carbon footprint is the sum of all emissions of CO2, which were induced by your activities in a given time frame. Usually a carbon footprint is calculated for the time period of a year.

你的碳足跡就是在一定時間段內你的所有活動引起的二氧化碳排放總量。通常情況下，碳足跡是以一年爲一個時間段進行計算的。