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 >
Palo Alto Student Footprint
I was surprised that my footprint was higher than average, but that surprise was lessened when I realized it was largely due to my 12 hours of flight that I put. My other decent contributor was my driving, as I rarely carpool unless there is a long trip, and do not bike or take public transport often. A reasonable way for me to reduce my carbon footprint would be to try and bike places more often or to ride with others.
I agree, riding bikes to places more often is a great thing. On top of that it gives you your daily exercise.
I was also surprised my footprint was a lot higher than the average. My transportation footprint was a lot higher than the average because I have a big family and we drive a lot. I realized that every small thing that we do adds up and makes our carbon footprint larger and larger daily.