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 >
Taylor Kennedy: Mooresville, NC, USA (Age: 16)
My name is Taylor, I am 16 years old and I am from Mooresville, North Carolina, USA. My total carbon footprint was 31,680 kgs. My total was well above average, because our class total was 15,918 kgs. The majority of my footprint comes from transportation. This is because I play sports and we travel a lot to play tournaments. While we do use energy efficient products at home, we travel a lot which increases my carbon footprint. I expected my total to be high because of how much I travel. It surprised me that the class average for ‘home’ was so much higher than mine. I also was surprised at exactly how high my transportation number was. I knew it would be high, but I didn’t know it would be that high. I learned that the best way for me to help the environment is to focus on cutting down on emissions from transportation. To decrease my carbon footprint, I could get a more fuel efficient car and try to travel less. I could also try to carpool with family or teammates to try to use less fuel.