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 >
My Carbon Footprint-Rachel F.
My name is Rachel, I am 16 years old, and I am from Mooresville, North Carolina, USA. My total carbon footprint was 14,453kgs per year. My total footprint is below average for North Carolina and the United States but much larger than the worldwide average footprint. The majority of my footprint comes from transportation, and that can be explained by the fact that I participate in sports and many activities that required me to drive myself. I wasn’t surprised that my footprint was less than the average North Carolina and U.S. footprints because I think that I try my best to reduce my energy use as much as I can. I always turn the lights off when no one is the room, turn the water off when I’m not using it, and recycle. I also wasn’t surprised that my average was so much higher than the worldwide average because I know that many people around the world don’t have access to the resources I do, and that would result in them having lower footprints. I was however surprised that my home average was lower than my regions (4,370kgs vs 6,148kgs). However, thinking about it, my f amily tries to use AC and heat as little as we can. In the future, to decrease my carbon footprint, I can try and carpool more which will help reduce my transportation footprint. I can also try to eat more organic or locally grown foods to reduce my food footprint.