A personal ecological footprint, also known as an eco-footprint, is the demand that an individual person puts on the Earth’s natural resources; such as land, ocean, and the waste that the individual produces. A person’s consumption of the Earth’s resources and how that individual impacts the earth help to create a personal eco-footprint calculation. At http://myfootprint.org/, I calculated my personal ecological footprint and discovered my impact on the Earth’s resources and its ecosystem. The ecological footprint quiz results were that if everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle we would need 3.86 Earth’s to sustain the world’s population.
The personal ecological footprint calculation quiz results are divided into four consumption categories, carbon, food, housing, and goods and services. The results are also broken down into four ecosystem types, cropland, pastureland, forestland, and marine fisheries. The calculation results take all of these categories into account to come to a final result. The ecological footprint is expressed in global acres. The personal ecological footprint quiz results compared my footprint to the country average.
The country’s average for carbon footprint is 91.43 global acres. My personal carbon footprint is 42.71 global acres. The country’s average carbon footprint is nearly double of mine. My carbon footprint is smaller than I expected. The country’s average for food footprint is 65.74 global acres. My personal food footprint is 52.59 global acres. I have a garden, as well as compost, which may have contributed to my lower number. The country’s average for housing footprint is 31.58 global acres. My personal housing footprint is 28.18 global acres. I live with three other people, which contrib...
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...gin to use, or reuse, more items in my home. The numerous reusable shopping bags I own are sadly forgotten at home when I do the grocery shopping. Making an effort to remember to utilize the reusable shopping bags I can cut down on my household’s consumption of petroleum byproducts.
In conclusion, the impact I personally have on the planet has surprised me. My personal ecological footprint is much larger than I expected. However, there are measures I can take to drop my current consumption rate, such as altering my recycling choices, making better purchasing decisions, and adopting the reduce, reuse, and recycle concept throughout my household. By altering my habits and consumption rate, I can affect my local community tremendously in a positive way for the planet Earth.
Works Cited http://www.answers.yahoo.com http://www.myfootprint.org
The ecological footprint is a mathematical tool that was developed by Doctor Mathis Wackernagel and Professor William Rees in 1992 to calculate how many hectares of land or acres of land are required to support one human being. Humans use up the planets’ natural resources to survive on a daily basis. These resources include fish, forests, land, water, and other agricultural products. In an aspect, we can think of humans as parasites to the planet Earth because it is our host and we need its resources to survive. Within the means of the ecological footprint, we want to look closely as the production of Earth’s resources, against the consumption rate of the human race. We can think of the ecological foot print analysis as an approach to a global
Canada; known for peacekeeping, multiculturalism and having one the largest ecological footprints in the world. What is an ecological footprint? The ecological footprint is a measurement of the amount of greenhouse gases produced by the activities in a person's daily life. One main source of greenhouse gas is burning fossil fuels. That includes the gas in a person's car and the coal burned at the power plant. Scientists have concluded that humans are producing more greenhouse gases than ever before. These gases trap heat in our atmosphere, causing our planet to warm up and changing our climate. The ecological footprint, therefore, measures the amount of potential impact a person's daily life has on the environment. By reducing the amount of greenhouse gases produced by people's lifestyle, they can reduce the footprint and help slow climate change on Earth. Canadian's are starting to get accustomed to using a surplus amount of energy when it is never needed and throwing garbage on the ground because the trash can is too far away for them reach. Canadian's are also using up the little natural resources left on this planet for sustainability. Crops, oil, trees are being used so much, that there might not be enough for the future generations. Canada must realize that this is a situation that must be taken seriously and that must be executed properly by meeting the social, environmental and economical standpoints. To reduce the ecological footprint and to regain sustainability, there are many things Canadian's can do to change the current situation. Ecological footprints can be reduced by using alternative energy sources, reducing energy consumption and by using cleaner transport to reach destinations.
In the documentary titled “No Impact Man”, we examined the journey taken by Colin Beavan, his wife Michelle, and their daughter to create no negative impact on the environment. Initially, they took measures such as buying from the local farmers’ markets, becoming vegetarian and using bicycles to go to work. However, there were some more dramatic changes that took place. Colin used worms to decompose their waste and scraps, and even resorted to using diapers made from organic wool as opposed to using plastic diapers. Even further, six months into their experiment, they rid themselves of electricity. They survived on candles, did laundry in a bathtub with natural components only, and made a pot contraption to keep things refrigerated. Although
I am really surprised with the result of my ecological footprint because I had no idea how my habits consume so many natural resources. Besides I cultivate some green habits as living in a house which has switched all the lights to fluorescent bulbs in order to reduce carbon dioxide pollution, unplugging my devices when they are not using to save energy and washing my dishes by hand instead using the dishwasher to save water and energy, this actions aren’t not enough to have a good footprint and I have so many things to do to improve it. Here are three actions that you could take to reduce my ecological footprint.
In Michael Pollan’s “Why Bother?” Pollan argues that each person can contribute to helping to the environment by erasing their carbon footprints. In my everyday life I experience the choice of driving my car to work or riding my bike. More often than not I choose to drive my car because it is the easier option. I, along with many other people, believe that my individual impact will not cause a larger impact on the global scale. In Pollan’s essay, he makes each person think about the effect they are leaving on the environment and how each person, as an individual, can change his ways before it is too late. Wendell Berry, a naturalist and well-respected and influential writer, was a key factor in recognition of the environmental crisis and how to solve the problem.
Carbon footprint can be defined as the amount of greenhouse gases an individual produces at a time through diverse activities. A person’s carbon footprint is the sum of all emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), which were induced by an individual’s daily activities for a given time frame. CO2 is one of the many greenhouse gases that are responsible for causing global warming which we are currently experiencing today. Carbon footprint is an extremely powerful tool which we can utilize to understand the impact that our personal activities have on global warming.
Human Footprint was a documentary about how much average Americans will consume throughout their lives. It covered everything from the diapers a child will wear to the amount of houses and cars a person will own in their lifetime. It gave the average amount consumed by each American in their lifetime, meaning some will use more of one thing, while others will use less. Certain items such as the amount of appliances and the types of food we eat were a great example of something that people probably did not realize had a huge effect on the world. While this gave great information about how much Americans really consume, it did little to address these problems. In fact, it seemed at times that they were not problems at all. The documentarian assumed that people watching would think consumption was a problem, but I am not sure that is the case with a majority of people. Another problem was the amount of time they wasted panning over the inflated amount of items consumed. Finally, they failed to challenge the viewer to change their lifestyle in even the most generically simple ways, such as using less when the opportunity comes.
The Center for Sustainable Economy, ecological footprint quiz was very informative to partake in and the results were impartial to my thoughts based on questions of what I expected in each of the four consumption and ecosystem biomes categories except for one. What I found surprising was the overall results of my lifestyle, that equate to 4.83 Earths, if everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle. Wow!
Many people define the term ecological footprints in different opinions according to what effect and good doe’s ecological footprint has. The Ecological footprint is the impact
My ecological footprint is 4.4 Earths to provide enough resources for the population. It would use 19.4 global acres to support resource productivity. It would produce 19.6 tons of carbon dioxide.
There is no hesitation when it comes to whether humans impact the global environment. However, it is questioned in whether human’s ecological footprint is either negatively or positively impacting. In clear perspective, humans share from both sides and their ecological footprint is noted towards whether it will benefit or harm the environment around them. Topics such as overpopulation, pollution, biomagnification, and deforestation are all human impacted and can harm the environment, but some include benefits into helping the world around us with solutions to their problems.
A person’s ecological footprint is the influence a person has on the environment. An ecological footprints size depends on how much Earth or land a person needs to maintain their use of Earth’s resources. There are many types of lifestyle factors that can impact the size of a person’s ecological footprint. Those factors can include what a person eats, they could be eating meat, poultry, veggies and seafood which would make the footprint bigger because land and sea creatures are being consumed. This can also include transportation, the way a person gets from place to place. A person would usually drive a car, take public transport, bike or walk. To lower the ecological footprint, biking and walking would be a better option, because less resources
Every day the world around us is changing ever so slightly in many different ways. Humans can affect the environment through our day to day lifestyle without even noticing the change. An ecological footprint is a measurement of how much a person uses the environment around them to live their life. This given measurement can help one to see their impact on the earth. It is an important tool to understand what actually a human does to change the habitat near them. My ecological footprint results gave me a perspective of how my daily life can impact the world I live in, as well as, how I as an individual can change my actions to make less waste on earth. It is also useful for each person to know their own ecological footprint since no one live
Although more people are aware of the impacts we have on our environment, there are still people that choose to ignore scientific evidence, or do not fully understand the consequences. Further education and research are critical components in an effort to become more sustainable. Fortunately, younger generations are learning about the need to address environmental issues so that changes can be made to ensure our way of life is sustainable.
A carbon footprint is a measure greenhouse gases produced through our daily activities. The average individual's carbon footprint is around three and a half. This means that humanity is using three and a half earths. This political cartoon by Jeff Parker addresses this popular issue. I will analyze this political cartoon according specific criteria, such as its design and visual elements, the genre, and type and spacial elements of the argument to provide a rhetorical analysis that considers the purpose, audience, and argument.