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 >
How Can We Use Capitalism?
Since most people follow self-interest, how can we use free-market concepts to drive positive climate behavior? For instance, coal is cheaper to harvest and use, so what can we do to get companies and people to follow their bottom-line as well as their conscience?
Hi Alex
check out the WA state carbon tax swap initiative -- it's totally free market driven, and it will probably really work to disincentivize carbon use in the state. Could be a model for the country and elsewhere if it gets on the ballot and passes!
http://carbonwa.org
If we were able to subsidies the machines that generate green energy, like how we (the U.S.) already do with corn. Then we should make green energy more popular and much cheaper.
Alex,
First off I want to agree with what Jason said about Washington's carbon tax swap initiative. I would also like to point out the British Columbia carbon tax- http://www.economist.com/blogs/americas … carbon-tax.
Almost as importantly (if not more)- as consumers, we need to demand carbon-friendly business models, and consume correspondingly. A company has no interest in ANYTHING unless it affects their sales/consumption. We need to make it economically logical to have environmentally positive behavior.
-Diego