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 >
Michael: Mooresville, NC, USA (Age: 16)
My name is Michael, I am a sixteen year old from Mooresville, NC, USA. My carbon footprint is 20,595 kilograms, about 5,000 kilograms more than the average for North Carolina. Most of my carbon footprint, over half, came from transportation. I travel a good amount yearly and on a weekly basis. My car and my mom’s car do not have very good gas mileage. I did not anticipate my carbon footprint being this high. My family and I do a good job of recycling and reusing supplies. I’m glad that I now understand how much of my carbon footprint comes from transportation. When I buy a car of my own, I plan on buying one with better gas mileage in order to reduce emissions.
Similar to you, my carbon footprint is well over the state and world average. Most of mine came from home as opposed to traveling but I also plan to buy a more eco-friendly car to reduce emissions. I didn't expect mine to be so high and this is relieving knowing that I am not the only one so high.
My family also recycles and reuses supplies. However, the cars that we use at my house have decent fuel efficiency. This combined with not taking a lot of long distance family vacations kept my transportation lower. Because of that, my home footprint ended up being my highest category. I was able to stay slightly below the regional average though.
My name is Sarah and I'm from the USA!! My carbon footprint is well over both the state and world average also. The majority of my carbon footprint came from transportation as well, except my transportation footprint is almost as high as your total carbon footprint! I travel a lot, which is why mine is so high. My car doesn't have very good gas mileage, which doesn't help. I didn't expect my footprint to be so high, but I did expect the majority to come from transportation.
It seems like a few peoples' footprints have increased because of transportation. Maybe we could all find a way to decrease the impact that our transportation has on our carbon footprint. I like how you mentioned that you weren't expecting your footprint to be so high. I think that most of us were surprised to find just how much of an impact we have on our environment.
I am surprised your footprint is so high. It is much higher than mine as mine is actually below the average. A majority of my footprint also came from transportation, as many people's did. So I am not surprised this caused your's to be higher. I like your idea of checking the gas mileage of a car before you buy it to be more carbon conscious.
I'm very similar to your carbon footprint Michael, I'm well above the state and world average. I think it's weird how we have things in similar. We're very fortunate compared to most people in the world in my opinion.
My carbon footprint is very similar to you. I travel a lot and my transportation was the highest of mine as well. Maybe if you try and walk or carpool a few times a week or so your footprint could reduce.