You may not know it, but you are leaving behind a carbon footprint.

What is a carbon footprint, you ask? Well, simply speaking, a carbon footprint is your contribution to the world's pollution.

Your carbon footprint can be measured in several ways, but mostly it's a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide that you are emitting through your own lifestyle; in most cases, through your vehicle, your home, or other natural resources you consume on a day-to-day basis.

Carbon footprints are expressed by the number of tons of carbon emitted annually.

Whether it's through fossil fuels, oil, gas, electricity, or other factors, your carbon footprint is what your individual consumption does to lead to environmental change such as global warming.

You can do your part to reduce your carbon footprint by taking some simple easy steps. Turn off lights, appliances, and other devices that consume electricity when you're not using them. Change the lightbulbs in your home to more efficient low energy fluorescents. Use programmable thermostats. Reduce unnecessary travel in your car by lowering the number of trips, or planning your errands. Carpool or use public transportation.

Remember, that everyone on the planet has their own unique carbon footprint, and the smaller the footprint, the less you contribute to global warming. Even if everyone just used one of the suggestions to reduce their global footprint, we can reduce the total carbon emissions significantly. And every bit counts.