Monday, October 5

Eye Opener - Ecological Footprint

I was pretty unaware what an ecological footprint was befor this assignment.  Now I know it is a measure of human deman on Earth's ecosystems.  Most of what I have learned about ecological footprints, I have gathered from Wikipedia.

Within the last decade, quizzes have been developed to show individual's own ecological footprint. I took some of these quizzes found at Ecological Footprint Calculator.  The particular quiz I took calculated the number of planets it takes to support my lifestyle.  Most of the questions consisted of what kind of food I eat and where it comes from. There were also questions about my home and what kinds of transportation I use. The results were kind of surprising. It said that if everyone lived like me we would need 4.3 planets to provide enough resources. I am very shocked by the high number, I thought I was living a little more eco-friendly.

There are a number of things I can try to do to bring down the results from the quiz.  First of all, I could try to buy mostly locally grown non-processed food.  Also, I could try to drive my car less, and when I do drive I try to carpool.  Or instead of driving all together I can start to use some public transportation.

3 comments:

  1. I noticed my food problem with packaged foods. Its a really hard thing to do because of money and were all in college but I am going to try my best as well. I think its good you got goals.

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  2. I agree, it does get harder that we are in college and are all looking for the easiest way to carry food and that usually is in packages.
    I also try to use public transportation and carpool whenever possible.

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  3. I also am going to try to carpool more often to school or use public transportation. I am right on the bus line so it is something I should really try to implement into my life.

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