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 >
Carbon Footprint Reduction
I definitely see a difference around the globe regarding the carbon footprint. I think there are a lot of factors that cause the differences to occur. I think one of the most important ones will be the awareness of the government. For example, the Japanese government is really aware of the environmental issues in Japan. Japan's ministry of environment established a series of protection policy including areas like global environment, waste&recycling, air&transportation, water environment etc. All these policies follow strict regulations. For example, according to the container and packaging recycling law, it is mandatory for each household to separate trash into three categories and the cleaning company will not collect the garbage unless it is separated. Because Japan has a strong awareness of environmental protection, the average carbon footprint is only 6439 kg compared to Ghana's 16975 kg.
I did use the carbon calculator to try to reduce my carbon footprint down to the average from a citizen of another country and I found that my carbon footprint is way too high. Mos t of my carbon footprint increase is caused by transportation. Because I travel by plane about 2-3 times a year, sometimes abroad, so it hugely increased my carbon footprint. I am going to take fewer plane trips this year and do more biking to reduce my carbon footprint.