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 >
Food and carbon footprint
Food production has a really big impact on our carbon footprint but it especially has a big impact because of meat. Producing meat, particularly beef and lamb requires large amounts of land, energy and water and that leads to a high greenhouse gas emissions. To compare with plant based foods they generally have much lower environmental impact. I don’t think people realise how their diet affects the climate. For example many foods need transportation and storage so that all has a bad impact on the climate aswell. I think that reducing meat consumption even a little will make a difference. You don’t have to become vegetarian just reduce it a little.
In conclusion food choices are important part of reducing the carbon footprint.