Carbon Footprints

So for class we had to do some looking into carbon footprints.  Now most people have heard the expression "carbon footprint", but what exactly is it?  A carbon footprint is simply a representation of the affects one has on global climate change due to the amount of greenhouse gases they produce.  Carbon Dioxide is usually the greenhouse gas that most focus on but there are others such as: methane, nitrous oxide, tropospheric ozone (from vehicles and power plants), and chlorofluorocarbons (used in refrigeration, air conditioning, and other industrial processes).
I went to a website, safeclimate.net, which allowed me to figure out my family's carbon footprint.  I also figured out the carbon footprint of one of my friend's family.  My family's carbon footprint was calculated for only 3 people even though there are 5 people in my family because I only used the travel information and utilities bills for my house and there are only 3 of us living there, my mom, sister, and me.  So with that in mind the carbon footprint will be even bigger but more on that in a minute.  So our carbon footprint was 3613 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air per month.  YIKES! And yet this was average according to the website.  When I told my mother she started getting all worried wondering how to lower it, she sounded relieved when I simply said turn the lights off.  83% of the the carbon footprint was from energy and 17% was from transportation, which actually surprised me.  My mom does a lot of driving, we were guessing around 9,000 but I'm sure it's more.  She does a lot of traveling around for her work, going to different states and driving out of town repeatedly during the week, but it was still the energy that was majority of our carbon footprint.
My friend's family's carbon footprint for a family of 4 was 4148 pounds per month, which according to the survey was again average.  Most of the numbers were pretty close, their energy for their home was a bit higher, but there is another person living there, but the carbon footprint per person in the family was lower then mine, I have a feeling it may be due to the traveling my family does.
Now I know my family's carbon footprint is grossly more then what I have calculated thanks to dear old dad. (ofcourse this is a joke, I hold nothing against my father, he's a die hard recycler, reducer, and re-user).   As my father is out of the country right now on active duty it is very VERY hard to figure out his carbon footprint.  He is living on Delaram in Afghanistan, and I have been trying to get some numbers to  make some sort of rough estimate on his carbon footprint.  Just figuring out his travel has been a hassle though.  Let's see, now from the top, he's flown from Michigan to North Carolina to Washington DC back to North Carolina to Maine to Germany to Manas then to Afghanistan.  Then has been all over Afghanistan since, bouncing back and forth between Delaram and Leatherneck and other bases.  So discussing with my dad we have come up with about 17,000 miles of travel, on plane that is.  I don't even know how to start in vehicle, which is of course a huge humvee.  Yep, my family's carbon footprint is off the wall right now.  I'm going to keep working on these numbers, and try to figure out my dad's carbon footprint.  I'll keep posting on any updates.