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 >
Carbon Footprint
Laura, age 16, from Mooresville, North Carolina, USA.
My carbon footprint was slightly above average, at 19,838 kgs. The majority of my footprint was going towards transportation. This is because I am constantly driving around to all the locations that I need to go to. If I am not going to a soccer tournament that is an hour or so away, I will be driving to and from school, soccer practice, friends and families houses , work, or volunteer events. I was surprised that my carbon footprint was lower than average in the food category, because I feel as if I eat a lot. From this activity, I learned that I should limit how much that Ii drive, and carpool more, as opposed to driving everywhere omitting more pollution.
Hi. I am Emma from China.
I agree with your solution. I have high carbon waste as you and the majority of my carbon footprint is also transportation. Most of my classmates are in the same situation. I think it is not necessary for you to have driving limit, most of time you can share your car with your friends who would love to go to the same place as you. That should be fun!
Thats surprising that your average is slightly above, I would think that with you driving around everywhere for soccer it would be much higher! Maybe you are doing something else that is eco-friendly? And I was thinking with the food category you might eat a lot but it is clean and eco-friendly so it isn't much harm to the environment.
Hey Laura, I'm Morgan from America.
My transportation was also well above average, along with my total footprint. Transportation is something that we all need. We can always find ways to carpool with other, but there will always be emissions coming from transportation. So we can try to balance that out by conserving other amounts of energy that we use.
Hey Laura Hayes from Mooresville, NC. I am the same as you, my transportation was the highest. Carpooling is a very good idea to knock down your transportation emissions. However, you shouldn't have to limit your driving entirely. I think over time cars will become more fuel efficient so we shouldn't have to worry too much about our transportation footprint.