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 >
Help at home
What are ways we can better cut the usage of appliances at our homes to conserve energy?
I believe that using lights only when necessary is a very helpful way to conserve energy. I realized during my conversation with my parents about our Carbon Footprint, that we all play a role in helping conserve energy. I found, in my results, that it is very simple to just flick the light off when leaving a room, but we are very immune to leaving them on. This is not very good and we should learn to get into a habit of turning them off when they are not needed and to be aware of how much light we use. Another component to lights is the type that we choose to use. There are a few that we usually use in our homes, so it is great to have some knowledge on the kind of light you use every day. Overall, we should all take light use into consideration to better our energy use and decrease our carbon footprints.
I find that solar panels are a good way to conserve energy. They do not end up giving astronomical amounts of CO2 as other energy sources do. Solar panels are also becoming cheaper, and they do not even need that much sun to function. Therefore solar panels are not only a way to help our earth by reducing CO2 emissions, but it is also cheaper.