I already had a general idea of the term "Ecological Footprint", but it was interesting to read more about. The first statistic about humanity using 1.4 planet earths in 2006 was a little shocking (stated here)! This means that we use up resources 1.4 times as fast as our planet can produce them. My first thought was - "I sure hope we've slowed down, Earth clearly wont be able to keep up for much longer."
Under the "Methodology" tab, it explains that there are many different things to consider when calculating this number, and different people/studies take different things into account - sea area, fossil fuels and nuclear waste are some of those.
Then, I took the quiz... and wow. It told me in the end, that if everyone lived like I do, we'd need 5.5 planet earths!! I use up 24.5 global acres to support my lifestyle. Sad.
The quiz itself was very interesting and pretty simple. You create an avatar for yourself and it asks you a series of simple questions about your lifestyle. You can choose to either be more broad with your answers, or more specific. I chose to be broad, but might go back sometime and get more specific to see how it changes. One thing I hadn't thought about, was flying in a plane! I don't fly very often (I chose "1-4 times a year"), but I bet a plane uses up a ton of gas.
This really did open my eyes to my footprint. One question I was a little ashamed of answering was how much processed, packaged, non-local food I consume. I am definitely going to start there when I reduce the size of my "footprint". On a positive note, I do ride the DTA (Duluth Transit Authority) as often as possible when I'm going to school, and thankfully don't need to drive very often/very far.
I also was a bit ashamed to see how much processed foods I ate. However, I am getting better with that, so that is good! I think it really helps seeing how much we really use to help think of our future actions! I also like your idea of walking! Especially now, it's so pretty to walk to school!
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way when came down to the amount of packaging we go through everyday. I hadn't even realized how much packaging I go through each day. I think by engaging in the ecological footprint activities, it allowed us to see just how much we are damaging our planet. When you think about how many people on the earth and how we take advantage of convenience to satisfy are needs and wants, we are the culprits for Earths damage. I think overall we have to start somewhere so we have to start with our own behaviors and become very conscious of what ways we make an impact on the enviornment.
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