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 >
Wants Vs. Needs
If everyone makes the commitment of only using resources that they need and are essential in their life than together we can all reduce our carbon footprint. I feel in order to save our planet Earth, we should purpose the idea to have an Earth year where Mass regions around the world all agree to reduce their carbon footprint and not use unneeded energy. By everyone commiting to this we may be able to stop our atmosphere from eventually getting baked by the sun. In order to make this plan happen we should have people vote around the world on whether or not we should dedicate an entire future year to saving our planet Earth. By making this action we could decrease the rate of our atmosphere breaking down by over 25%. I propose this idea in hope for change and more respect for our planet Earth
And, quite possibly the new practices we develop could become longtime habits.
Along with dedicating the year to reducing our carbon footprint by using less, we could also dedicate time and money to finding and popularizing more sustainable and environmentally friendly materials to replace those that are especially bad for the environment, thus leaving allowing our carbon footprint to continue to decrease long after the year is over.
Prioritizing what you need can go a long way if many people contribute to this idea. For example long hot showers, buying the newest gadget, and leaving the on lights when you aren't in the room are all unnecessary things that take a toll on the environment.