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 >
More Electric Cars
In today's society, 97.5% of people with cars are Gas cars. This is a problem as these cars emit lots of CO2 into the atmosphere which is very much contributing to climate change right now. Buying electric cars are a little more costly than gas cars, but by investing in them, you will save more money. If the average electric car cost $35,000 and the gas car cost $30,000, you would want to buy the gas car, but if it cost around $42.30 per 100 miles rather than electric vehicles which are $4.08 per 100 miles, you would favor the electric vehicle. After 13,000 miles, theoretically, the electric car would be cheaper. The average American drives 13,474, so around a year, you will start to save money. So if you are considering buying a gas car, remember you should buy an electric car instead.
I think this is an interesting point. I read a New York Times article that focused on how the the Model S Tesla's battery was negatively affected by cold whether, and as a result the distance that the Tesla could drive was shortened. This made buying the car in places of cold climate seem like a bad choice. However more recently I heard that this problem could be solved by preheating the car. With problems such as this one solved, I believe that electric cars could certainly become a sound alternative to gas cars.
Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/auto … ghway.html