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 >
First World Carbon Footprints vs International Carbon Footprints
The reason why the average US citizen's carbon footprint is so much higher than the global carbon footprint is because of the idea that the US is a first-world/mass production country with a high population. These two aspects of the US boost the average US carbon footprint because of the given luxuries to an average US citizen, as well as the fact that the US provides some of the biggest mass production companies in the world (after China, of course). A study shown by World Economic Forum describes how the average US citizen has a carbon footprint of 14.95 T, topping all of the other countries in the world (source below). On top of the idea that an average US citizen (but not all US citizens) has the luxury of electricity, transportation, and other amenities that further boost the average carbon footprint, the US has a high population, further stacking on the combination of high carbon footprints of an average US citizen, and the fact that there are 327 million US citizens. This is why the US provides a much higher carbon footprint than smaller countries around the world .
Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/ … ootprints/