Climate Change

What's your Contribution?

Video: Things to know about Climate Change

Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

What is your daily activity like?
How much are you impacting the environment?
Think about what you do every day and find out how many trees you need to plant to have zero carbon footprint.

Transportation:

How do you get around every day?
  • Car: 6 points
  • Bus: 2 points
  • BART: 1 point
  • Plane: 1 point per 500 miles/year

Diet:

What do you eat usually?
  • Meat Lovers: 6 points
  • Vegetarian: 4 points
  • Vegan: 2 points

Home Appliances:

How long do you use these appliances?
  • Electricity: TV/Computer/Lights:
    • High (6-9+ hrs): 3 points
    • Medium (3-6 hrs) : 2 points
  • Low (0-3 hrs) : 1 point
  • Heating and AC: Heater, Hot water (showers), Air conditioner
    • High (6-9+ hrs): 3 points
    • Medium (3-6 hrs) : 2 points
  • Low (0-3 hrs) : 1 point

Tree Off-setter:

How many trees does it take to have zero points (zero carbon footprint)? Each point = 4 lb/day of Carbon Dioxide Emission Each point = 32 trees Total points x 32 trees = Total number of trees to plant Total point x 4 lb/day = Total amount of Carbon Dioxide Emission

You would have to plant a lot of trees to reach zero carbon footprint. We might not be able to reach a zero carbon footprint but we can definitely reduce our carbon footprint. Every person makes a difference! Start by making small changes in your life to make a difference.

  • Take the BART or bus instead of using a car.
  • If you take the bus already, ride a bike or walk.
  • Change up your diet sometimes; eat less meat.
  • Watch less TV and play outside instead.

Overall, by making healthier decision for yourself, you are working towards a cleaner Earth.

I had no idea!

Bottled Water

Americans throw away 50 billion water bottles each year. Millions of tons of oil are required to produce and transport bottles.


Reusable Coffee Cups

If we all used our own mugs, we would save more than 100 million tons of paper every year.


Disposable Chopsticks

100 billion pairs of chopsticks are used every year.

Cool Sites About Climate Change

  • EPA Kids' Site with games: Link
  • Measure how many trees you need to plant to offset your carbon footprint: Link
  • CoolClimate Network: Link
  • Pictures of huge changes around the world due to climate change: Link
  • Climate Change in California: Link
This website is part of a design project from CEE 105, Applied Fluid Mechanics. Authors: Wintana Alem, Scott Berta, Alan Vaz Lopes. For more information visit this page.