Electives are great.
They're a chance to see healthcare in a different context and to gain first-hand experience of what 'global health' really means. If they're in a far-flung country, they also tend to have a pretty hefty carbon footprint, and we know that climate change is increasingly affecting health in different parts of the world. The aviation industry is now the world's fastest growing source of carbon emissions.
At Healthy Planet, we're trying to gather information on the range of carbon footprints of UK medical students' electives so to take part please work yours out with the calculator below and then type in the total, which medical school you're at and when the elective was/will be in the form below.
We've also embedded a more general travel calculator below if you'd like to work out the impact of travel by other means, for example if you've decided to travel over land - just enter your country then click on the relevant tabs eg. bus & rail.
At Healthy Planet, we're trying to gather information on the range of carbon footprints of UK medical students' electives so to take part please work yours out with the calculator below and then type in the total, which medical school you're at and when the elective was/will be in the form below.
We've also embedded a more general travel calculator below if you'd like to work out the impact of travel by other means, for example if you've decided to travel over land - just enter your country then click on the relevant tabs eg. bus & rail.
Thank you very much for taking the time to work it out!
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If you're considering offsetting, it's worth taking time to choose a good offsetting option, although they can sometimes cost a bit more than the cheapest ones.
If you're interested in finding out more, there's quite a good report here on some of the issues, and an article here which mentions a few good options, e.g. http://www.coolearth.org/ and http://www.carbonretirement.com/ |
Calculator for other forms of transport or to work out your overall carbon footprint (the UK average is about 12 tonnes/person)