After taking the IUHPE Ecological Footprint calculator, I have discovered my ecological footprint is 4.8 Earths. Meaning that if everyone in the world lived like me we would need 4.8 planet Earth planets to provide enough resources. It would also take 21.6 global acres to support my life style. My ecological footprint is mostly affected by the services I use regularly and the food I consume, relating to how my food is made, where I get the food, and how it is transported.
I was very surprised that my ecological footprint was so high. I'm not very big into technology and when it comes to transportation I either, generally, ride the bus or walk/roller blade. However, when I consider all of the services I use and the fact that primarily purchase my groceries from the grocery store instead of a farmers market, I am beginning to see how I could cut back on products even more. I feel very disappointed in myself because I know that my behaviors impact how the world will function and, being a future health educator, I dislike knowing that I will be trying to encourage others to live healthier when I could do more for the environment. The results showed me that I am using up the earth's resources quicker than it can reproduce and knowing that I am the cause for so much pollution and degradation of the world makes me not care about cost of services and food so much, but helps me focus more on how I can me even more conscious about how I'm living.
I have realized that I do spend a lot of time driving in my car and most often I am by myself! I grew up living in the country and so I had learned to create of list of goods that I would need the next time my family and I went to a bigger city, though, since living in Duluth I have not been as diligent with creating lists and waiting until others need to go somewhere and carpool when I need to pick up my items. i am also not the best at purchasing food from the farmer's market or organic food. Seeing how much of a difference it would make for me to choose those instead of simply going to the grocery store really makes me want to change.
I also took the 'Carbon Footprint of Nations' quiz and it revealed to me that I am not too different from my country. Our country creates 7,922,600 millions tons of CO2 on an annual basis, most of which are created from services (16%) and mobility (21%) and a grand total of 1,483,300 million tons on imports.
Overall, I feel myself and the United States could do more for our world if we took the time to slow down and observe how we can help each other instead of viewing what's most convenient for ourselves. As what my photo for this post is supposed to symbolize, we need to lend a hand and work together if want to make the one world we do have last a lifetime.
It's interesting to see how much we impact the earth doing the little things we do everyday with out even noticing were doing it. I like your idea of creating lists of things you need so that when your list is big enough you can make one trip rather than many. I'm guilty of this from taking a trip to walmart, getting home and realized I forgot something (because I didn't write them all down) and having to go back into town to get it. Wasting gas and also emitting more chemicals into the air. All of which could have been avoided by just being more organized.
ReplyDeleteI took the footprint quiz as well and found out that I was using around 4.2 earths I believe! I was surprised by my results and it really brought to my attention everything that contributes to this number. Now that I am more aware, I can hopefully work toward decreasing my footprint. You had a lot of good information and detail in your post!
ReplyDeleteI didn't think that my result would be as high as it was. Something I learned after taking this quiz was that all the little choices we make in everyday life will impact our environment.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you are good with services. I feel like that is where my downfall is. I wish I could take the bus to school but with having a job that I work at until an hour before class I don't really have the time to get there and back to my bus stop!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the country too! After you said it, I remembered that we used to have to make lists and wait until everyone was going before we could go to Target or the grocery store. It amazes me I forgot how to carpool so fast!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by my ecological footprint results as well. I thought I was a little more eco-friendly, but now I know what I need to do to help our earth out!
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