My carbon footprint was much higher than I anticipated. The travel aspect of my footprint was 15,278 kgs. Part of this was due to the airplane travel I did over this past year. My home energy was 6,364 kgs which was much lower than I thought it would be. We have around 60 lightbulbs in our house and I thought that would correlate into that category, increasing the end product. My purchases were 354 kgs, which was yet again lower than I anticipated. I might have put in the annual amount of how much I spend on shopping a year at an incorrect amount, but it was still very low. I hope to bring my carbon footprint down with my family. Overall, we are kind of lazy, any tips as to how to gradually decrease our carbon footprint?

If you want to try decreasing your transportation footprint there is always the possibility of simply just carpooling or taking public transportation. For airplanes maybe you could try to travel to less faraway places. I'm not saying that you should give up your vacation or airplane travel luxuries but perhaps try going places that are nearby so the distance being traveled is less. Meaning that the amount of carbon being emitted would also be less. In your home you could always just turn off lights after leaving a room or the house. You could also just decide that after a certain point all lights must be off so if nobody is using a room then electricity is not being wasted.

Thanks, Chisom! I was wondering if composting would also help to decrease my carbon footprint. All of your suggestions were greatly appreciated! I take AC Transit most days that I do not have sports practice at my school, but on the days that I do have practice, I carpool with three other friends. Our family is a pretty big fan of travel, though, so I think that aspect will be difficult to decrease. Turning off lights so that we waste less electricity would be an easy way to efficiently decrease my carbon footprint! I will try to remind myself and other family members. What were your results for your carbon footprint?

Your welcome, Maggie! My carbon footprint was 17,297kgs. Similarly to you it was mainly because of transportation which was 12,311kgs. I have family all over the place and my parents like to see them a lot. Almost about every month or so my family and I are driving off to some faraway place to see someone. I am not sure on how to decrease the transportation aspect of my footprint but I have thought that maybe we could meet in a central location instead of one person driving to meet the other. My home aspect was 2,071kgs, food was 2,606, and purchases were 309kgs. I am really surprised by all of these since I expected them to be higher and to be honest I am not very conscious sometimes on the impact I have on the environment.

OK! It is said that the carbon footprint of an average American is 20 metric tons, whereas the world average is 4 tons. Why do you think it is so much higher here? We are also beginning to get intense weather changes from global warming. Ocean acidification is bleaching coral and killing underwater ecosystems. We need to spread awareness of the negative impact we have on our planet and turn it into a positive one. How do you think we can do this?

Hey Maggie, unfortunately I too have a carbon footprint was expected to be less than what it turned out to be and totally agree that we should spread more awareness on how this affects Earth and the world around us. My highest happened to also be transportation totaling at 21,343kgs, making me believe there are more people with similar, if not higher, amounts. As for your question, although the world average for a carbon footprint is 4 tons, I feel that America (having 20 metric tons) is prone to produce the higher amount because of all the goods that we produce and receive from international countries. We may wonder why not China? We see "Made In China" all over the things we buy, but ultimately those products are being shipped from China to the U.S. Thus, giving us all the CO2 that may travel along with it. If America could advertise more "home-grown" products here, we could possibly eliminate the excess foreign CO2.

Thanks, Sofia! Thanks for your feedback on the comparison on the transportation aspect of the carbon footprint. I have a question about your reasoning as to why America has higher CO2 emissions than China. You stated that when China ships over the items they have manufactured it pollutes America. This is true, in the sense that it does, but the number of emissions is evenly distributed throughout the ship's journey. Do you have any other reason as to why America gains the most CO2 emissions?

Hi Maggie! I am in the same boat here. My transportation was around 17,000 which is way above average. Another surprising element of my carbon footprint was the 3,000 kgs (below average). Before the calculation, I was expecting a much higher home carbon footprint because we don't use many LED bulbs. According to a Green Matters article, LED bulbs have reduced 570 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions! They use 40% less power fluorescent light bulbs, which are mostly in my house. I think we as a world can make a big difference by switching to LED bulbs!

Thank you, Cecily! I think we have come to the conclusion that overall, the transportation aspect of our carbon footprint was definitely higher than anticipated. That means like Chisom said, we should work on minimizing the distance we travel, or carpool/use public transportation more often. If we put these little actions into effect and other people do the same, we can create a healthier and more sustainable Earth!