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 >
Sustainable Planes
One way that people who travel a lot (like me) could reduce their carbon emission is if there was a more sustainable kind of airplane that let out less carbon dioxide. According to the Washington Post, there is a somewhat new type of engine hat is called the PurePower Engine. This PurePower engine is one that has been 20 years in the making and more is able to save about 16% of carbon emissions from planes. They are still working on this engine and putting out new versions of it so it ca become even more efficient. Another way that we could cut down on on airplane carbon emissions is to chose from a list of more sustainable airlines, of which there are numerous lists online. One of these lists exists at medium.com, where they have lot of different options for sustainable airlines inside and outside of the country. In theory, some people could stop flying altogether, but that might be hard for some people with jobs that require them to travel a lot. All in all, I think that more sustainable airplanes is a good way to reduce the CO2 in our atmosphere.