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 >
Location Based Carbon Emissions
Looking deeper into the cause of my carbon footprint revealed how much the location of one’s community can affect their carbon usage. For example, living in the U.S. means long distance travel is extremely common as things are so far apart from one another. Flying for week long trips or even for single day trips happens with regularity all throughout the U.S., immensely increasing the country’s global footprint. Unlike some other nations, we don’t have a long distance travel alternative like a train, so people resort to flying, one of the highest producers of carbon in all technology. On a local level, simple things like being walking distance from your school can have a huge impact on your carbon footprint. Driving for your daily commute adds up, eventually making a big impact on carbon emissions into the atmosphere, so being smart with short distance transportation such as walking or biking, makes a big difference in the long run.