Name of Assignment: My carbon Footprint
Subject: Environment & Ecology
Facilitator/Teacher: Professor Gould
Description of Work/Assignment:
For this assignment I went to the Nature Conservancy website and found my carbon footprint by taking a shirt lifestyle test. According to the quick test, I use 60 tons of CO2 per year, which is 22% better than average.
Which 21st Century Skill do you feel this assignment addresses, and why?
I feel this assignment best addresses my self directional skills. I was able to do the work to the best of my ability on my own in order to pursue extra credit.
What are you most proud of from this assignment, and why?
I am most proud of scoring better than 22% of test takers. Though I can imagine they are all Americans and therefore are already part of the 1% it is still a good sign.
How did you develop and/or improve upon your 21st Century Skill with this assignment?
I picked out time over the weekend to prioritize this assignment even though it was extra credit and not doing it would not lower my grade.
What was most difficult about completing this task?
The most difficult part about completing this task was not knowing much of the information required for an exact result. These include water bills, electricity bills, and household annual income.
How could you improve this work? If you could start over, what would you do different?
If I were to improve this work I would try again when my parents are home in order to get a good idea of my actual numbers.
How does this relate to what you have learned in the past?
Right now a few of my classes are teaching climate change because it is a very important topic people my age need to care about. SO earlier this year I took the ecological footprint test and scored much better than average than on the carbon footprint test. I think this was because I spend so much time flying it brought my CO2 numbers up significantly.
How can you apply this to future learning?
I can apply this to learn how to be more climate friendly and ideally find ways to become carbon neutral and make becoming carbon neutral more accessible because right now big business make it impossible for normal people.
According to the Nature Conservancy, my carbon footprint is 60 tons of CO2 per year. This score is better than 22% of test takers. When looking at the “take action” section it starts off strong by asking me to buy a new vehicle for the first few ideas. Since realistically, as a high schooler, I could not afford that right now and I already carpool most everywhere, I believe the best option for me would be to bike around. I used to do this before I got my license and since right now I do not even have my own car, this may be a great opportunity for me. A carbon footprint is different from an ecological footprint despite both tracking the toll your way of living has on the environment. Ecological footprints, as we learned in week one, are track the amount of land/sea you use to produce and offset everything you do in your daily life. Carbon footprints just track how much carbon dioxide and methane the test taker puts into the atmosphere.