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 >
Light Usage
I believe that the use of lightbulbs is a big contributor to the CO2 in our environment. There are different types of light bulbs that produce different varieties of CO2. The University of California, Irvine discusses the differences of various light bulbs, "the CFLs use only one-quarter of the electricity and produce only one-quarter of the CO2 pollution as incandescent bulbs do." Incandescent light bulbs produce a significant more amount of CO2 than fluorescent light bulbs. Therefore, I believe that people should reduce the number of candescent light bulbs they use and switch to fluorescent light bulbs.
I think that this is something that needs much more awareness as electricity has a huge effect on our sustainable footprints. Additionally, another way to manage our light usage is by being conscious about turning off the lights in our house when we are not using them. Using fluorescent light bulbs and turning off lights when they are not needed impacts the environment as the United States Environmental Protection Agency: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/source … -emissions
states, " 28% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in 2016 was produced by electricity."
My findings are synonymous with yours. After completing the CO2 emissions calculator, my "Home" section of it was extremely high. After looking at my table closely, I deduced that the reason for it being so high was the amount of lights in my home. Out of the 79 bulbs in my home, 39 were incandescent and 40 were fluorescent. Even though more than half of them are fluorescent, the incandescent bulbs are used for about 140 hours total every day, which, according to Alexa's research, would produce 4 times the amount of CO2 as my fluorescent bulbs, which are only on for about 80 hours a day. According to APO News, if one incandescent bulb and one LED bulb were both turned on for 10 hours per day for a year, the LED bulb would have a CO2 footprint more than 6 tonnes less than the incandescent bulb. This shows that using LED bulbs would dramatically help reduce the emissions from lightbulbs around the world.
Sources:
My ISCFC Footprint Calculator Preparatory Worksheet
I agree with you in that we should use fluorescent light bulbs more because they let off fewer emissions and they do the same thing, produce light. But even better I agree with Andrew in that we should use LEDs. They are long lasting, still, provide more light, and more durable. LEDs use less wattage than incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. LEDs let off less heat because LEDs are designed to use its energy for light and not heat. In my bedroom, I find that the LED light is hardly hot, and it provides bright light
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php … nt-lights/
I absolutely agree with you. I think that such a small change that we can all do can really make a difference in our carbon footprint. Fluorescent light bulbs are environmentally friendly and are best for the environment because they decrease the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere and help offset global warming.
Some people are using way too much power and watts in there house from light bulbs on its own