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
When I calculated my carbon footprint, I was surprised to find that it was over double the average carbon footprint for people in my area at 17,685. I thought that I would have a lower footprint than most people since I take the bus to school, drive around in an electric car and tend to eat more sustainable foods. However, after further thought, I realized that despite all the sustainable things I do, my family travels a lot going to Lake Tahoe a few times every month and last year going on a total of 12 flights. 12 flights is a lot however I think that it isn't a good representation of my usual carbon footprint because most of those flights were from my family's trip to Galapagos which involved many flights and layovers. My family likes to go on vacations and I think that with more work in reducing my footprint in other areas such as food and purchases I can make up for the large transportation footprint.