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 >
Using LED Lights can Decrease the Size of Your Carbon Footprint
We all know that turning off the lights after you leave a room can help the environment, but using LED lights instead to fluorescent or incandescent lights can also help the environment. LED lights can be used up to 15% longer, and they use less than 20% of the energy of other light bulbs.
Totally agree, and honestly there is no reason not to get LED bulbs now.. they are no more expensive than compact fluorescents.
I can definitely agree with this. Most if not all lights in my home have been replaced with LEDs, I find them to be a lot brighter and yet less expensive. I did a comparison on my carbon food print between LEDs and regular fluorescent and incandescent lights bulbs and thanks to having LEDs, my foot print was drastically lower.
Led lights hurt my eyes
That is quite interesting actually because certain LED lights (especially the cheaper ones) have been shown to produce a flicker much like some of the first fluorescent lights, this is caused by small/cheap driver circuits in the lights that create a 60hz flicker that can be hard on the eyes. Another cause of this could be the color temperature, often times the older LED bulbs have a cooler color temperature instead of a warmer one that is easier on your eyes... kind of like the "night shift" feature on your phone...
This is a great article and I highly recommend that you learn more about LED technology, its actually quite interesting:
Yes, I totally agree. The US Department of Energy states that LED bulbs consume 75-85% less energy than incandescent bulbs meaning that they will function at the same light level but require less electricity. Also, they last 25 times longer. So, not only are you getting your money's worth, you are also reducing your carbon footprint.