Footprint LAB Assignment: Air Pollution

Just how much impact are you having on the planet? In order to reduce your impact, it helps to know where you are starting from. Complete this assignment and see what difference even small changes to your lifestyle can have on your overall footprint.

1. Flying can be a large part of the footprint of individuals in high-income countries. You may not fly much now, but at a UCLA student, your future is bright, and you are likely to be in a position where you can (for personal reasons) or need to fly (for work) more in the future.

Using resources available on the web, make estimates of the amount of carbon you can save if you:

a) Assume you are flying Los Angeles to New York City. Fly non-stop instead of changing planes once in Houston.

b) Same as a) but with a stop in Chicago instead of Houston.

c) Fly coach vs. fly business.

d) Fly on Netjets instead of business on a major carrier

e) Fly at night vs during the day

f) Drive a car instead

g) Fly on the greenest airline vs the least green (among major carriers).

h) Write a paragraph commenting on your conclusions.

2. Lets explore your new car, assuming you decide to go that route, rather the usually greener and often healthier option of no car.

a) Choose two pairs of models of as close to the same model as possible, 1) one gasoline and one CNG or Hydrogen, and 2) another pair with one electric (partially electric is OK) and one gasoline. Examples include the Prius + plug in Prius, the civic CNG vs. civic, the Chevrolet Volt vs. Cruze etc. The models need to be similar in weight and application and the same brand (i.e. mid-size trucks for small business, compact cars aimed at urban drivers etc.) If you choose different brands the comparison will be too much apples and oranges (such as a Tesla and say, a Jaguar.)

b) Figure out their carbon per mile for your four vehicles, showing carefully all of your sources, conversions, calculations and assumptions. For the electric, do this calculation twice, for the California and US grids. The two grids emit different carbon/kWh. For this calculation, please compare the electric only mode (if you picked a plugin hybrid to compare) to the gas car.

This calculations should include all of the following: mpg, miles per kWh, carbon per gallon of fuel, carbon per volume of gas (CNG), and carbon per kWh of the electric grid, and likely some other conversions.

c) Write a paragraph commenting on your conclusions.