Students from around the world calculated their class mean and standard deviations for their footprints and posted them on our world map.
Do you see differences across the globe? If so, why do you think those differences exist?
Did you use the calculator to try to reduce your footprint down to the average from a citizen of another country? What changes would you have to make to lower your footprint in this way? Are you going to try and take some of these actions in your daily life?
Student Footprints >
What actions can you take to reduce your carbon footprint at home?
My response
When I got my carbon footprint results, I was surprised because they were larger than I expected. I had a higher number for all the categories except purchases, so I think that I should focus on reducing how much carbon my household gives off for home, food, and transportation. Since I use a lot of plastic water bottles, I could try to use reusable ones, and my family could try to use more environmentally-friendly ways to heat and cool the house. In the winter, we use a lot of heating, so we could try to wear warmer clothes instead of using a lot of energy to produce large amounts of heat. We could also try to use gasoline that produces less carbon emissions, because we travel by car a lot. In our school community, we could make sure that all of the lunch packaging is recyclable.