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 >
Better Travel
For my carbon footprint, 7,150 of the kg were from travel. I took a few flights but I don't drive too many places most of my travel CO2 was from the flights I took. I take the bus every day and I think that that did bring it down or just not make it worse. If I had driven to school every day then I think that my carbon footprint would be a bit higher. I think that taking flights is very bad for the environment and that if a more sustainable way to get around was possible that would be much better. A Boeing 737, used for many international flights, at a speed of 780 km per hour, is equivalent to 90 kg CO2 per hour. If you take a 6-hour flight from here to New York that is 540 kg of CO2, assuming you take a round trip flight you then have just put 1080 kg of CO2 into the air. Last year I flew to Europe on a 14-hour flight and I then made many other trips inside of Europe. I had a few other flights and travels that year and knowing this I now know why my travel emiss ions of CO2 pretty high. Even though the class average was 7,077 kg I took few car rides and just for flights 7,150 was a larger chunk.
My transportation constituted half of my total carbon footprint, which I think is pretty high. I live far from my school, but I carpool with a few other people to and from, so I think it kind of helps. But my family likes to travel, so that adds a lot my carbon footprint. I also fly to visit relatives almost every year. We take a lot of long distance road trips so electric cars are kind of a hassle. It would be good for us and for the environment if the longer distance (ie Tesla) electric cars could be less expensive.
Public transportation is a great way to travel and limit carbon use. One way that the city could encourage people to take public transportation more often and reduce the use and need for personal vehicles, is to update public transport systems. In my city, this could include creating more AC transit bus routes or more BART train stops. This way, public transportation will often be more convenient for people which will make them want to use it more often.