A carbon footprint is the total warming gas one person or thing causes. Reduce your carbon footprint.
The idea was pushed hard by an oil company, which is worth knowing when using it. A personal carbon footprint is real and is dwarfed by decisions made elsewhere.
1nouncarbon footprintThe total warming gas one person or thing causes.
“The flight alone was half his carbon footprint for the year.”
carbon footprint is a measure.
Coined in 1999 after the earlier ecological footprint and popularised by a 2005 advertising campaign.
Coined in a 1999 BBC Vegetarian Good Food article and after the 1990s term ecological footprint and popularized by a 2005 advertising campaign for fossil-fuel company BP in order to shift blame for climate change onto individual consumers. Modelled after the ecological footprint concept developed in the 1990s.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Science & Space