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 I Plan to Reduce My Carbon Footprint
After taking the carbon footprint quiz, I found that my main contributions were for home and food. I realised that a lot of my home footprint was from long showers. I usually take long and hot showers, and I found that the EPA estimates that the standard showerhead uses 2.5 gallons of water per minute(epa.gov/watersense/showerheads). This means a ten minute shower uses 25 gallons of water. Showers also use a lot of energy to heat up and stay warm, so showers produce a lot of carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change. By taking shorter and colder showers, I'll be saving a lot more water and energy, which will help reduce my carbon footprint by a lot. Another thing I can do to reduce my footprint is to eat less meat and animal products. I usually have vegetarian or vegan meals for breakfast and lunch, but for dinners I can definitely eat more vegan or vegetarian meals every week.