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 Score Differences
Although my carbon footprint was below the average person compared in my region I don’t think that means we shouldn't care about the way we put out carbon, I think no matter how higher or lower we scored we should always be cautious on what we do that can harm our environment/planet. When I received my score the one that stood out the most for me was the purchase category because of my ratio, it was 224 while the average was 1,191 which made me think how much we purchase things each year. When looking at the carbon map on carbonmap.org when looking at the CO2 per person (data recorded from 2013) the united states was one of the highest. Humans are always buying and with technology coming out more frequently that growth will keep increasing.
My purchase category was also surprising for me as well. I wasn't aware of how much I was spending and how that was affecting my carbon footprint. Were are becoming people who feel as though we need more and the latest stuff but we aren't recognizing the affect it's having on the environment.
My transportation was 3,301 while my regional average was 3,447. Like you said even though it may be below there's still so many more things I could be doing to reduce that. Being cautious about what we do concerning our environment is always great