Hi, I’m a 8th grader who come from Dominican international school, Taipei ,Taiwan. My carbon footprint is a bit higher than the average carbon footprint of our country. I think either my carbon footprint and Taiwan’s average footprint are high. Now we are in the era of environmental protection because of the global warming,the whole world all try to put effort into protecting the resources we left, so I feel that my country and myself all need to try hard for decrease the carbon footprint.Have you guys ever heard about U-Bike? That is a great public facility set in Taipei(as I know) you can rent the bike and ride it to wherever you like,it is very convenient and healthy for your body.There is a lot of things we can improve, so let’s work hard for environmental protection !!

Hello everybody! I’m a student studying in California. I’d say that the latest technology is definitely and ONLY a want. In my family, we try to reduce and reuse as much as possible. When the time came for my family to get new phones because of our cellular plan, my mom got the, new at the time, iPhone 4S. She previously had the iPhone 3S, which was still in really good condition. So, instead of buying a whole new phone, I decided to take it as my own. I’m still using this four year-old phone and it’s working great! It might be a tad slower than the iPhone 5, but that’s really the only difference. This is also where I think society went wrong. All this new technology is a race to create the mobile device with the fastest network. It’s a big and booming industry, but it’s also creating an increasing NEED in younger generations.
I think people, especially teenagers, can break that addiction to their phones by living a little. Stop tweeting, posting, liking, unliking, and actually experience the world!

Hello, my transportation footprint was 3456 kg, my home energy was 3161 kg, my food was 4695 kg, and my purchases were 689 kg. I was a little surprised to learn that my food carbon footprint was so high. i assume it was so high due to the fact that i eat a lot of meats. However, i did assume that both my transportation and home energy footprints would be much higher.

Hello everyone! I’m a high school student from California. According to the ISCFC, I have a low carbon footprint in all areas of the test, except transportation.

I only travel by air, once every other year, to visit family on the other side of the globe. Even though I don’t travel by air very often, it’s a huge contributing factor to my carbon footprint. I’m not willing to compromise because taking a plane is the only way to visit my family in Asia. My family is still able to communicate with them through the Facebook and by using a web cam, but nothing compares to seeing them in person.

Besides air travel, my family drives around more than the average family. Last year, my sisters and I were all at three different schools. After school, my mom would have to drive at least 10 miles 5 days out of the week. (Remember this is only after school.) I also do a lot of volunteering at an average 16 miles away from home on most weekends. It’s almost impossible to reverse these habits because my sisters and I need to be picked up from school, no matter what. It would be disastrous if I stopped volunteering because it’s become a way of life for me and I run a volunteering club, so I need to be at as many events as possible. Even though these behaviors are irreversible, I try to do as mush carpooling as possible.

That new iPhone. Do you want it or need it? You may be thinking that that iPhone you want has already been made, shipped, and someone else will go buy it anyways if you don’t. That is true; however, you have not accounted for:
1. Supply and Demand: If more people decide not to buy it, less will be made.
2. What will happen to your old phone? Yes, you can sell it, and that buyer can sell his old phone, and that person can sell their phone such that they can have the one from the buyer that you sold yours to, etc.
However, somewhere along these lines there will be phones being discarded — fully functional devices that do everything you NEED (not want) them to — being taken out of use. I therefore discourage you to not buy the iPhone 5, as I am regretting my purchase.

Greetings earthlings: I have made some profound discoveries regarding personal transportation of students. Per year, I average 9789 kg/CO2 on transporting myself via car, train, and airplane. I was not shocked to see that this was a direct result of my air travel and occasional train travel. However, I was shocked to see that my car transit Carbon numbers are also quite high, probably because I almost always drive alone. That is what led to my discovery. If you carpool with three friends as much as possible, doesn’t that mean you are burning a quarter of the gas (saving cash) and reducing your footprint? From now on, I will carpool as much as I can.

After I took the carbon footprint challenge, I learned that my food, purchases and home footprints were low but that my transportation footprint was extrodanarily high. I realized this was because I go on a lot of trips over the summer and visit family that live far away. One way I have tried to decrease my carbon footprint is by having a car that gets better milage and therefore will use less gas. I think that the challenge really helped me realize how much impact each person has on the global carbon footprint and how important it is that we attempt to reduce it as much as possible

Hi! My name is Aubrey, and I am from the USA. After calculating my carbon footprint, I realized that the type of lightbulb I used had a major contribution to my overall footprint. After I discussed this with my mom, we compared the compact fluorescent lights to the incandescent light bulbs, and we noticed a large difference. Although it is kinder to the environment to use the compact fluorescent lights, they are much dimmer, and change brightness after a few minutes. They produce a yellow-ish light compared to a white light. This changes the overall mood of the room, and makes objects appear dreary. As we enter the hibernal months, my mom refuses to change all of our bulbs to compact fluorescent because she does not want the home to be drab and depressed. She was willing to change a few, though, which is a big step. I believe that every little thing we do to help our earth will contribute to an overall better society!

Hello! My name is Aubrey, and I am from America. My old phone recently broke, so I upgraded and purchased the new iPhone 5. There was so much hype about it that I was actually disappointed when it came: There are only 2 noticeable differences from the old iPhone. After I heard about the devastating affects the new iPhone 5 has on the environment, I felt really guilty about my decision. I realize that I needed to get a new phone regardless, but I could have gotten one that was either used or not in such high demand. A choice with either of these characteristics would have been much wiser. For now, I am going to make sure that I don’t break this phone prematurely, and, when the time does come for it to pass on, I will use better judgment in finding a replacement.

Before calculating my results, i thought that my results would be average compared to America. After recieving my results, I learned that I am way above average with CO2 release. My transportation is 10780kg, my home energy was 5016kg, my food was 1749kg, and my purchases were 831kg. I realizew now that i need to cut back on how much a travel by automobil or airplane. I could also start carpooling more often to and from school.