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 >
My carbon footprint
I am honestly not really surprised with my carbon footprint. As I expected, my carbon footprint is lower than 4000 kgs of CO2 per year, which is 1700 kgs lower than the average carbon footprint in Croatia. I had assumed it was lower, because in our household we are extremely careful when sorting out our waste into right disposal bags and we try to save as much water as possible. The only area that is slightly higher compared to the average sum in my country in my carbon footprint is transportation. Though I had expected that, seeing as I ride by bus to school and home every day because I live outside the city where my school is. Overall, the results didn't surprise me much.
What I find really surprising is that the latest result of average carbon footprint in USA calculated in 2020. in a high school in New Mexico shows that their carbon footprint is almost 6 times larger than in Croatia. When our carbon footprint counts up to about 5700 kgs, theirs is at an alarming 32000 kgs of carbon per year. Firstly I had thought that we are leaving too big of a carbon footprint, but now I realized that there are some countries in the world such as USA and Thailand, even Portugal and Island, whose carbon footprint also isn't negligible.
After this brief description, I would like to point out that our carbon footprint keeps growing every day and that we as humans, for the sake of all living creatures, as well as ourselves, should start educating ourselves on this serious matter and do something to try and reduce the amount of carbon we produce. Only then will we see how important it is to nurture the world around us and how much it will affect us in a positive way.
I'm also bothered by the footprints of some parts of the world(mostly the US) and honestly can't even imagine how the hell they manage to produce 30k of CO2!? I feel that my above average 7k of CO2 is way too big and needs to be lowered, but why should I even bother if some produce more than 30k and are not bothered by that at all. Some people just simply need to open their eyes!