Writing #4: Carbon Calculator
Many of our daily activities trigger emissions of greenhouse gases. We produce greenhouse gas emissions by burning gasoline on our daily commutes, burning gas for home heating, or using electricity. Greenhouse gas emissions vary among individuals depending on a person's location, habits, and personal choices. It is good to know how much green house gasses an individual produces in their daily habits to be aware of their carbon footprint. From there a person can change their habits in an effort to reduce their footprint for a better life style and for the general health of the world.
For this assignment I went through and checked all of my homes shared bills for accurate dollar amounts and measurements. For the questions about my car and my grandparent’s car, those were estimated through various websites including fuleeconomy.com. The lowest reliable value that I entered was my cars MPG. I found it easier to determine the average MPG from the reports on fuleeconomy.com rather than determining it myself. By the end of the carbon calculator, my estimated household carbon usage was 37,393 pounds of CO2 per year. Per individual this amount translates to roughly 12,464 pounds of CO2 per year.
In comparison to the class average as seen below in figure 1.1, my house hold emissions were definitely on the lower end of the spectrum. To find the class average I took the higher number in the ranges offered, multiples each of those numbers by the responses they received and then added all of them up and divided them by the total 27 responses (Class average= [10,000x5] + [20,000x7] + [40,000x10] + [60,000 x 3] + [80,000 x 2] / 27).
Figure 1.1 Co2 Emission Averages

Part of the reason why I think I ended up on the lower end of the spectrum is because I live with my grandparents who have the means to make the more expensive changes to our