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 >
Science and the Environment
During the past few days, I have learned much about my carbon footprint, greenhouse gases, and climate change. Using the ISCFC website, I calculated my carbon footprint to be around 25,000. This surprised me because the average was around 9,000. A lot of my carbon footprint was from transportation, so I learned to hopefully take fewer flights and walk whenever possible. Additionally, I learned the difference between greenhouse and non-greenhouse gases, and how to identify them. I learned from the columbia.edu article that energy is absorbed and half of that energy is put back into the Earth, causing heat. Finally, I learned the difference between climate change and global warming. Climate change refers to the change in climate over a long period of time, whereas global warming refers to a rise in average global temperatures. All three of these things relate to each other because my carbon footprint leads to more CO2, a greenhouse gas, which ultimately changes the climate.