Carbon footprint

You’ve heard the phrase, but do you understand it? The Guardian has an article discussing what it means:

Carbon footprint is a horribly abused phrase, so it’s worth spelling out exactly what it means.

When talking about climate change, footprint is a metaphor for the total impact that something has. And carbon is a shorthand for all the different greenhouse gases that contribue to global warming.

The term carbon footprint, therefore, is a shorthand to describe the best estimate that we can get of the full climate change impact of something. That something could be anything – an activity, an item, a lifestyle, a company, a country or even the whole world.