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 >
Climate Change Rising
When you look at data of our global temperature over the past years, you can really see how much our climate has changed. Since the industrial revolution, our temperatures have risen about 1.3°F. This is happening because we have been emitting too much carbon and our climate is just growing more and more sensitive. By the time our generation retires, the climate will have risen anywhere between 1.9°F-4.1°F. That will be 3.5°F-7.4°F above the temperatures of the preindustrial era.
Since we were born, our climate has risen 0.2°F. Our climate keeps rising and if it doesn’t stop, our planet will be above the safety limit of 3.6°F by the time of our retirement. By the time we’re all gone, our planet might have risen about 10°F since the preindustrial age and just a 7.2°F rise was enough to transform our planet during the ice age. Our children are going to be seeing rises reaching 11.3°F. That’s enough to bring catastrophic impacts. If our planet doesn’t make a big change, the temperatures will keep rising and eventually something bad is going to happen that impacts all of us and by that time it will be too late to do anything.
By the End of Your Life, Warming Could Have Reached above Preindustrial Levels. For
Comparison, a 4°C Rise Was Enough to Transform the Planet since the Last Ice Age. "How Hot Will It Get in Your Lifetime?" How Hot Will It Get in Your Lifetime? N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.
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