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 >
Reducing my Footprint
My total carbon footprint is 17,944 kgs per year with 4,286 kgs from my home, 4,052 kgs from foods, 382 kgs from purchases, and 9,223 kgs from transportation. In order to get this number lower, I have already asked my family about switching our house from using gas to using electricity. I have also stopped hand-washing dishes as much and instead used our dishwasher. While these things will definitely reduce how much carbon we are emitting, I am curious to know how some foreign countries have such little carbon emissions per year. I understand that the United States is one of the biggest carbon emitters, but I saw a school in Germany that had a mean total footprint of as little as 7 kg.