My name is Ariel Rivera I am 16 years old and from Mooresville, North Carolina, USA. My carbon footprint was mostly made up of my transportation habits. I travel a lot visiting family in Florida, New Jersey, and even Puerto Rico so it didn't come as a surprise to me that traveling in cars and planes as much as I do would have an impact. Most of my other categories of food, home, and purchases were below my regions average. My total carbon footprint was at around 16,162 kilograms which is well above the world average of 3,791 and also higher than my regions average of 15,918. The fact that my average is so much higher than the world's average alarmed me and made me more aware that I may need to change the way I do things. To decrease my carbon footprint I could take less vacations and when I am close to home I could choose to walk or carpool with someone.

Yeah! Me too! Just recently, my family took a trip to the Philippines, halfway across the world. As you can imagine, my transportation total was out of this world! I expect that in the summer everyone's is very high. In an article by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, statistics show that more than a quarter of greenhouse emissions in the US alone are caused by some form of transportation. In addition to this, we're burning millions of gallons of fossil fuels to support this way of life. One long-term solution is through technology. We need to support explorations and inventions in engineering for the creation of more efficient engines and energy sources. Personally, I try to cut my transportation emissions by carpooling with my friend to and from school. It's fun because we get to hang out, easier for my parents who don't have to pick me up from school as often, and we're helping the earth. Also, I'm starting to bike more often. It's a good way to get to places close to my house, and it's exercise!

My transportation was also my highest, at 5,500kgs. My family took a trip to California this summer, and I drive a lot, so I also wasn't surprised that this made up the largest proportion of my footprint. The rest of my categories, food, home, and purchases were also lower than my regions with purchases being my lowest at 380kgs. My overall carbon footprint was lower than my regions but was much higher than the footprint worldwide. I could also work on walking or carpooling more when possible. I could also work on turning off all of my electronics when I'm not using them to lower my footprint.

My carbon footprint was about the same as yours and my transportation was also pretty high.  It's hard to keep my footprint low since I have a lot of my family out of state.  I wonder if I flew instead of drove how it would differ from where it is now.  You also have some good solutions to bring that down.

I completely understand why, since you have family around the world, you would have such a high carbon footprint. My family lives in Italy and Venezuela and just 6 airplane trips brought my transportation carbon footprint all the way up to 14618! The thing is, it is really hard to bring that down because we all want to see our family, especially if they live far away. Because of this as well as trying to reduce flying we should focus on other ways to have a better carbon footprint. Personally i try to bike to places more often, which not only helps the environment, but also helps your emotional health, physical help, and costs less than a car.