Carbon footprint, a

global issue
May 14 / 2016
Bogot, Colombia / Abraham Lincoln
School
Authors
7B
Agustn Moreno Guerrero
Julin Camilo Herrera Seplveda
Mara Alejandra Pez
Abstract
This project was meant to evaluate the
state of knowledge and the actions of the
lincolnian community towards the carbon
footprint.
The carbon footprint, consists on the
increase of carbon dioxide in the
Atmosphere. Mainly produced by the
human activities, which in an increasingly
growing population this is a situation that
needs our attention. That is why this
survey was created. Everything you own,
has a carbon footprint, for being
manufactured or for being transported, it
has left a footprint in the environment.
Introduction
A carbon footprint is the estimated
amount of greenhouse gases-gases that
trap and retain Suns heat in the
atmosphere
Mainly this problem increases because of
our excessive consumption and as the
concerning of the students was vast, the
science department has encourage the
young generations of seventh grade to
design a survey that could estimate the
knowledge and the actions each student
does towards this issue.

Also, for this project the seventh graders

and the science department thought,
Lincolnian students have a good
understanding about the carbon
footprint, but their actions do not reflect
such understandings. To prove this
hypothesis a survey with Likert Scale was
applied to 54 students.
Methodology
After the research about the carbon the
students of seventh grade consisted in 20
closed questions that measured how
people acted and how much they knew
about this problematic.
Ten of these questions measured how they
acted at home or at school; the other ten
questions were written in such a way that
they were able to measure the level of
knowledge about the carbon footprint.
Later, the best questions were selected
and the survey was applied by Internet
using Chamilo Platform. Using the Likert
scale:

Always
Almost always
Sometimes
Almost never
Never

The survey was answered and later, the

results to each question were collected
and put in a chart where the same students
examined all of the results, question-byquestion for them to have an organized
and clear vision of what the schools
community knows and how they act
towards the carbon footprint.
For studying the data, the students looked
for the mean, mode, minimum value, and
maximum value; this allowed the students

to start the writing process of the results

of the survey and to take out their final
opinions about it.

the point where they can no longer be

reused, they must be forwarded to
recycling options, rather than being
disposed to landfill.

Results

When the survey was applied to the

community, we saw that with this
instrument, appeared various results
which the students examined, how much
people know and how they act, the carbon
footprint is a problem that affects us all
and with it, comes many other problems
that can also affect us in our daily lives.
Firstly, when talking about turning off the
lights once the place is empty, the
students said they turned off the lights
almost always; with results like this, we
know the community is trying to reduce
their consumption of electricity in the
school and in their houses also.
Another thing that the community must
do is recycle. Talking about helping by
recycling, telling friends, family and
mates; the lincolnians said that sometimes
they tried to teach how to recycle, how to
use less not-reusable products, how to
reuse the materials they already have, like
glass, paper or plastic and also to correct
the bad habits some of the lincolnians
have. Once the shopping bags reached

Some essential needs the community has

are printing and drinking. It must be in
computer we hear this from the teachers
many, many times; in the survey was
asked if they used the two sides of the
paper. Also, if we take a look in the
cafeteria, we can see that the school gives
plastic cups and when used, we ought to
trash them and if we want some more, we
take another cup, which also contributes
to the carbon footprint; in the survey was
asked if they reused the cups that are
given. When the students studied this two
questions, they found the same result,
always and almost always, by this, they
could see that the community tries to do
it.
To add to, eating in restaurants is a thing
many of the students like to do, they can
share time with family and friends, but
what they do not know is the
environmental damage they are causing
by just simply going to a restaurant;
firstly, they ought to drive to the
restaurant, and when you use the car you
are contributing to the global warming
and the greenhouse effect, which makes
part of the carbon footprint issue;
secondly, the restaurants act like factories,
factories pollute in one way or another. In
the survey was asked if they eat at home
or at a restaurant, their answer was
sometimes, with that, we can see that they
like to go, but not as often.
When vacations arrive, travelling is really
common, specially in the long vacations
that come when the school year finishes.
It is great, and many of the students travel
out of the country during that period of
time. In the survey, we asked if they

travelled out of the country once a year or

more, sometimes was the given answer by
the community. Traveling by plane,
specially when you need to travel long
distances, is used, but what many of us do
not know, is that the plane uses huge
amounts of fuel that when the it is in the
air, the oil is burned and it is forced to go
to the atmosphere, contributing to global
warming.
Discussion
Lets go back to our hypothesis If we
show them how this affect us, perhaps the
community will change how they act and
how much they know about this issue.
For proving this, the students ought to do
more studies about this topic for them to
know if the community learned more or
acted different in a way that is helping to
reduce the carbon footprint.
If we search for results of surveys about
the greenhouse effect, global warming or
about the carbon footprint, we might find
some similar results than the ones the
students obtained with this survey, that
the most of the community knows how to
act, but its knowledge its really humble,
they might act towards this problem
because some others (that know about
this) tell the others to do such things that
they try to help the reducing of the carbon
footprint. Perhaps, what is really needed
is to teach the community about this
problematic, what is being done to try to
reduce it, and how they can help to do so.
When we look back to the questions that
were made, and the results that were
given, the students can see that the
unawareness is the major problem in the
community; in question 7 do you
unplug your electronic devices when they
finished charging? The mean or average
answer in that question was sometimes,
and if we compare it with question 12

the use of heaters, electric showers or

other home appliances increases the
carbon footprint? which the community
answered always.
This can tell us that they know that
buying more electric appliances can
increase this problem, but most of them
do not unplug their devices when theyve
finished charging, they just do not know
that it is bad to leave it there, but they do
know that buying more things increases
the damage, they need much more
education in this topic.
The understanding of this problem, is that
the community does not know how the
carbon footprint acts, thus, they need
more education, to show them how the
carbon cycle goes and how by just
increasing a bit the carbon levels in the
atmosphere, it can make a global problem
that later would be almost impossible to
get rid of.
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