Do you really know? What is climate shadow, the newest way to measure your impact on global warming?
Sep 10, 2025
Explore the emerging concept of climate shadow, a comprehensive way to measure personal impacts on global warming. Uncover how individual consumption, choices, and intentions play a crucial role in climate change. Discover the importance of collective action in addressing this global crisis, moving beyond the traditional carbon footprint. Dive into the nuances of this new metric and understand why it's becoming vital in the fight against climate change.
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Climate Shadow Defined
- The climate shadow expands impact measurement beyond emissions to include speech and civic actions.
- It groups impact into consumption, choices, and attention for a fuller picture.
Three Parts Of The Shadow
- Emma Pattee breaks the climate shadow into consumption, choices, and attention components.
- Consumption covers spending, choices cover investments and occupation, and attention covers activism and conversation.
Limits Of Carbon Footprint
- Carbon footprint focuses narrowly on calculable emissions and ignores motives and unquantified actions.
- The footprint concept originated with BP in the early 2000s, shifting accountability toward individuals.