Activity 2:
Have students work on the activity below in pairs/groups. Be sure to print answers on
separate page from the quiz. Before handing out the answer, write down all three
characters on board. Have students list off the good traits and the bad traits that would
increase a carbon footprint. Then have them vote on who they believe has the biggest and
smallest footprint. Hand out answer and discuss.
Whose Carbon Footprint Is the Smallest?
Guess who is living green and whose carbon footprint is to blame for drowning polar
bears and worse: Is it the Nature Buff, the well-traveled Jetsetter, or the Urban Hipster?
Take notes on their good decisions and their non-eco friendly ones. How do you stack
up?
1. THE URBAN HIPSTER
“I eat out way too much. I drink bottled water. I do the club scene a lot. Am I busted?” —
Sarah, 22, Magazine editor
2. THE NATURE BUFF
“Even my cappuccino maker and my razor are solar-powered.” —Jake, 33, land-conservation
program manager
3. THE JETSETTER
“I’ve never learned how to drive. I always use public transportation.” —Rachel, 29
Programming manager
1. THE URBAN HIPSTER
Sarah is too exhausted after a day at work in Pittsburgh to think about cooking, much less the
environment. She’s a classic work-hard/play-hard person, and she chills by going out with
friends to Movies and dance clubs.
LIVES: In an 835-square-foot duplex with a friend. The late-1800s building does not have airconditioning, energy-efficient windows, or energy-saving insulation. Sarah’s roommate insists
that the thermostat hover at 58 degrees, even in the winter, to keep utility costs down, but
they haven’t switched to the other classic saver, compact fluorescent bulbs.
DRIVES: A 1994 Nissan Sentra (30 mpg) about twice a month to Target to stock up on basic
necessities. Otherwise, she takes the bus two miles to work to avoid expensive downtown
parking. From work, she walks a few blocks to shop for groceries and other necessities.
EATS: A Healthy Choice lunch most days, brought from her home freezer. She eats out about
twice a week, orders takeout another two days a week, and cooks quick-fix chicken or veggies
the other days. Drinks a lot of bottled water, both at home and at work.
WEARS: Outfits from Macy’s, and casual, fun clothes from American Eagle or Old Navy. She
buys what she likes and what she can afford (“I’m not a shopaholic”). She doesn’t pay
attention to whether a sweater is made in Illinois or India.
DOES: Pricey Sushi dinners with friends and midnight runs to McDonalds (she orders a salad
and small order of french-fries) as after-hours indulgences, as well as dance clubs every
weekend. “That’s what you do in your 20s, isn’t it?”
2. THE Nature Buff
Jake, a back-to-the-land true believer, chucked his career as a lawyer in New York City, then
volunteered for The Nature Conservancy in Colorado (which eventually hired him).
LIVES: In a 2000-square-foot cabin at 9200 feet, so far from the nearest town that he’s
forced to live off the grid, meaning everything from his razor to the cappuccino maker is
powered by solar panels. If it has been cloudy, he revs up a generator (three days a year at
most) to charge the solar batteries.
HE ALSO HAS: A wood stove for heat (powered by trees he and his girlfriend cut from their
property) and propane for the cook stove, radiant floor heat, and hot water.
DRIVES: A Subaru WRX (25 mpg) 18 miles each way to his job and the grocery store in
Boulder. He drives around the state on business, sometimes in a Prius that his employer loans
out.
EATS: Organic fruits and vegetables, some from as far away as New Zealand, although he’s
trying to buy more locally. He doesn’t eat out or buy packaged foods much and tries to stay
away from beef, since cows and other livestock contribute serious greenhouse gases to the
environment.
WEARS: Dressy pants and Nice shirt to work, sometimes from the second hand shop (like
Salvation Army), sometimes brand-new. For play, it’s Patagonia fleece. “I saw a website that
talked about sustainable clothing, but I just don’t like that hippie stuff.”
DOES: Nordic skiing, hiking, cycling outside his back door. He also competes in ski races
(including one in Anchorage, AK).
3. THE Jetsetter
Rachel is part homebody, part globe-trotter, and considers herself more eco-conscious than
most people. When not traveling for fun or her job with a Hong Kong-based company that
makes eco-friendly textiles, she’s more likely to be with her boyfriend at a ukelele concert
than at a dance club.
LIVES: In a three-bedroom townhouse in Queens, NY, attached to other houses on the block,
with her parents. They keep the thermostat fixed between 68 and 70 degrees and turn it off
when they leave the house. She doesn’t use air-conditioning. She does indulge in long, hot
baths and showers — sometimes twice a day to stay warm in the winter.
DRIVES: Doesn’t know how, so she walks 15 minutes to the subway, which she rides for 35
minutes to work. Occasionally, she hails a cab if she’s running late for a meeting.
EATS: Takeout and restaurant food roughly four times a week. “I cringe at all the plastic and
Styrofoam containers,” she says. She eats meat, though not every day. Eating virtue: No
bottled water (“I drink water warm”).
WEARS: “I’d rather save up and buy a better-quality piece than buy a bunch of cheaper
things that don’t last.”
DOES: Enviro-studies. She recently earned a certificate in conservation biology from Columbia
University. During a field trip to Brazil, she caught travel fever and last year alone went to
China, Hong Kong, Germany, Washington, Utah, Brazil, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. “I feel bad
about those trips,” she says, knowing they make her a carbon offender. But she tries to make
up for it by being conscientious about reducing, reusing, and recycling.
See if you guessed right (for the record, driving, flying, heating your place, and using
electricity are the heaviest-weight carbon offenders. What you eat and buy generally makes a
more subtle, but still important, difference).
The Judge
Robert Henson, author of The Rough Guide to Climate Change and a writer at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research, weighed these women’s eco-virtues against their eco-vices.
Jake: the biggest footprint
WHY: Big-city dwelling is often more eco-friendly than living elsewhere. “Rachel gets major
credit for taking public transportation and sharing a townhouse — the common walls keep
energy costs lower than they might otherwise be,” says Henson. Rachel’s fashion approach
(buying fewer but higher-quality clothes) is also eco-smart.
But Rachel’s wanderlust caused her footprint to balloon well above average: One flight from
New York to Shanghai and back produces more greenhouse gas per person than a year’s
worth of typical driving. If she worked some of her pleasure trips in with her business flights,
she could make a huge difference, says Henson. The next best thing is to purchase carbon
offsets (you pay a company to do something green-virtuous) to assuage guilt and lighten your
eco-load.
Jake: midsize footprint
WHY: He’d be the winner if not for the fact that he burns so many tons of fossil fuels
commuting from his rustic home to the city. “If he got a small hybrid for everyday commuting,
he could cut the biggest part of her carbon footprint by a third or more,” says Henson. Jake
gets climate points for avoiding beef — the average American eats more than 60 pounds of it
a year, and those cows generate a lot of greenhouse gas, both directly and indirectly. On the
downside, as Jake himself points out, he indulges in organic veggies grown halfway around the
world — and shipped as far to his table. “A few more trips to the farmer’s market would help
freshen his diet and further reduce his carbon footprint,” Henson says.
The eco-winner: Sarah- the smallest footprint
WHY: You don’t have to nix nights out on the town just to live lightly on the planet. Taking
the bus to work, walking to get groceries, and sharing a modest duplex with a friend score her
beaucoup eco-points. One simple step — putting in compact fluorescent lights — would
seriously lower emissions and minimize her utility bill. And if she signed up for her power
company’s wind-power option, she could make her electricity emissions-free. One of Sarah’s
small indulgences — bottled water — may be her biggest climatic transgression, Henson says,
considering the fuels that go into the plastic and the energy used in shipping. Tap filters or inrefrigerator jugs would give Sarah fresh water without the extra emissions.
Source:
Moran, Susan. "Whose Carbon Footprint Is the Smallest?." Marie Claire 31 Aug 2008 12 Dec 2008
<http://www.marieclaire.com/world/news/carbon-footprint-test>.