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 >
Calculating my carbon footprint
After I finished the quiz that calculated my carbon footprint, I noticed my and my family's carbon footprint was significantly larger than the average, comparing to both my country and worldwide. So, after a brief discussion at home we decided to step up our game and reduce the usage of electricity and water as much as we can. Here are some of the new rules we established:
- replace every incandescent light bulb with an LED one;
- stop the heating in our home during the night;
- take shorter baths and showers, and only turn on the water when we need it;
- turn off the faucet between dishes;
- use recycled paper as much as possible;
- thrift shop more.
This activity helped me realize that although we don't want to acknowledge, our carbon footprints affect the Earth way more than we think they do, and one by one we can all adjust to small yet still comfortable changes that add up and help us better protect our planet.
Interesting takes!