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 >
Transportation Carbon Emissions
When I calculated my carbon footprint, I felt pretty confident that I had a sustainable lifestyle. A big shock for me when I checked my results was the transportation category, which was more than 4,000kgs over the average carbon emissions for that category. My lifestyle includes a lot of traveling via cars or public transportation, and I regularly make long commutes. I did some outside research on the danger of burning diesel and gasoline to travel in cars/buses, and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) says that the buildup of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere is causing the Earth’s global temperature to rise, otherwise known as global warming. Doing research on the impact of greenhouse gasses has helped me realize my personal impact via carbon emissions. Moving forward, I will do my best to use public transit and low-emission methods of transportation when possible.
Link:
https://www.epa.gov/transportation-air- … sportation