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 >
Cutting down CO2 emissions and water usage through meat
Whether you realize it or not what you eat tremendously contributes to your CO2 footprint as well as your water usage. The average person eats 270 pounds of meat per year. Realistically if everyone in the world becomes vegan then the CO2 emissions would decline about 70%, according to BBC. But this is unrealistic although if everyone cuts down their red meat consumption then the emissions could decrease up to 60%, according to BBC. Also cutting down on red meat could decrease water usage. One pound of meat uses about 1,248 gallons of water, according to The Huffington Post. So cutting down on meat, specifically red meat could tremendously decrease CO2 emissions and water usage.