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 >
Reducing Our Carbon Emissions
There are only 175 months left until the global temperature will rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, at which point global warming will reach a point of no return. If this happens there would be massive affects on climate, and life as we know it would be permanently changed. A crucial step that individuals can do to stop this event from occurring is reducing their carbon emissions. According to the world map, schools in the United States had overall higher carbon emissions than the rest of the world. Some of our heightened carbon emissions can be attributed to larger population and industrial development, but much of it is caused by a greater sense of consumerism than other countries. Purchases was the category that American schools consistently had higher levels of than schools in other countries. Consumerism is almost embedded into American culture, but it is also one of the leading causes of heightened carbon emissions. If people in the United States were able to cut down their spending on unnecessary, or non reusable things it could significantly help us to not reach the point of no return with global warming.