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 >
My Carbon Footprint
After calculating my own carbon footprint, I found that most of my totals are higher than the average of people in my area. For instance, my carbon footprint for traveling this past year is 24,312 kg compared to the normal 2,557 kg. My traveling created a carbon footprint 9.5 times more harmful to the environment than the people in my area. My home and food footprints are higher than most as well. However, my purchases are much less than the average of others in the Bay Area. My purchases are 290 kg in comparison to the average of 1,191 kg. My carbon footprint in purchases is 4.1 times less than the average in my region. I wasn't shocked to see these results because I traveled frequently last year outside of the US. My purchases weren't very surprising either because I don't buy new clothes very often.