A human’s every day life consists of using and consuming resources that produce waste. Seeing an increase in population, means seeing an increase in waste. In order for future generations to be living in as little pollution as possible, it is important for current generations to under stand the impact they are having on the environment. An ecological footprint is a good tool to calculate this; it measures supply and demand. It measures the area of biologically productive land and water required to produce the goods consumed and to assimilate the waste generated in one year. In simpler terms, it is the amount of environment necessary to cancel out the production of goods and services necessary to support the lifestyle you live. I believe that …show more content…
I think the main thing that goes into this is my car. I drive a 2002 Chevy Suburban that gets about 14 miles per gallon in the city and 16 on the freeway. With Christmas coming up, I am hoping my mom will let me take her Ford Taurus back to Tucson with me because it gets over 20 miles to the gallon. Another problem is that I drive back and fourth going home to Lake Havasu, Arizona almost every other weekend. This is a four-hour drive one-way. The amount of gas I use is way too much. Switching cars with my mom will lower my gas by almost 50%. Another category I can work on is food. Every Wednesday from 10 AM to 2 PM, there is a farmer’s market on the University’s mall. Supporting local food sources is a good way to help the environment and reduce the gas I spend driving to the store once a week. This will also help me choose foods with less packaging in order to reduce …show more content…
But once I saw my group members’ numbers, I felt a little better. However, this is a bad thing because none of us are living the life we should to keep our environment running smoothly. Granted that this test is not completely accurate, needing an average of 4.2 planets between the three of us when we should only need around 1 is upsetting. One thing that surprised me was how much higher my percentage of food is compared to theirs. It is one thing to say I will go to a farmers market and buy more locally grown produce, but it is another to do it. This is a reality check to me that I need to make some changes. Once my volleyball season is over, I will be eating out less and having less pre-game meals because the time taken away from practicing four hours in the middle of the day, can be used for meal prepping. I noticed that my shelter is significantly lower than both of theirs; this is something that I am proud of because I know I started off badly when I got here in the summer. I was surprised to see that my mobility is not outrageously higher than theirs. It makes me wonder why Adam’s is so much higher than mine because I feel as if it does not get any worse than what I do. Especially with all of the flying I do to play competitions. I think comparing my numbers to their really helps me put in perspective what I need to change and now after doing the research, I know how I can
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.
Environmental sustainability is when a person, community or area is able to meet the needs of the present, without compromising the needs of the future. Overconsumption will lead to hardship in the future, and possibly to the destruction of the planet’s finite resources; and if we continue using our resources as at current rates, which have been estimated to be 4 planets worth of resources, this will be inevitable. Populations are all the inhabitants of a specific area/country and this population can be controlled in various methods such as population policies, like the ones in China, Kerala and France; as well as control via migration by putting on limits.
As small mobile groups of hunter-gatherers adopted a sedentary lifestyle, they mastered both agriculture and animal domestication. These small settled groups quickly evolved into cities and towns that encompassed the entire globe. Today the estimated population of the world is over 6.2 million people.1 As the population has grown, it has had several deleterious effects on the Earth. These include climate changes, the spread of diseases, declining food production, deforestation, and environment pollution (particularly air pollution). As people have become more conscious of these harmful effects, they have begun to devise strategies to combat this problem. Among the suggested responses include a switch to renewable energy, a call for zero population growth, and adopting sustainable agricultural practices.
Here one of the continuous arguments is that Earth’s support do not only consist the number of people in the earth, but also the features of economics, environment and culture. Cohen takes into perspective also the economic growth and takes critical position considering its inconsistency. He describes that global economic system does not take into notion depletion of unowned stocks, their environmental and social costs and ignorance of human need. Growth of population also has many environmental impacts. He argues that human activity is closely linked to environmental problems, and when population growth is fast, the environmental problems get worse. He brings up the issue of trade-offs, for example trade-offs among burying municipal wastes. In his opinion, environmental vulnerability increases as humans move into cities and consume more. Third negative feature of population growth according to Cohen is cultural implosion. Due to migration and technology the rural and urban regions have shrunk the world, bringing cultures into contact and into conflict. He thinks that this cultural cohesion has raised problems on employment, cultural conflicts, gender inequality and distressing income gaps. Cohen says that these problems put aside also issues concerning the negative effects of population growth to environment. It is interesting to read about the important factor of regulating population. He says that it is hard to find solutions to this, and also highlights that the time is short for correcting our
Malthusian theory also deemed population expansion would have a direct correlation between the environment and its future destruction. The environment is the home not only to humans but also to the wildlife, vegetation, and other living species of the world. “Population will have a very serve, even catastrophic, impact on the natural environment and human welfare (Walker, On Wall Street). Over-populat...
It may be easier to start out in small steps maybe within the individual household, then work towards others on the outside. Any step or effort made is a positive step in the right direction. Changing the behavior and effects on the environment takes the work of all individuals that share this Earth. One person can only make so much of a difference. Personally, I will put effort into my daily life to try using less water by turning off the faucet while brushing my teeth or in between when I’m washing dishes. I have mentioned to my father how he should call the company that comes to your home and takes your grass out and replaces it with gravel which is small rocks. It is paid by the government because you are helping the environment by using less water and you won’t have to water grass anymore. They put plants of your choice that do not require water. I’m sure if I’m capable of taking public transportation to commute to work and school but maybe I will think about changing my car to a hybrid or an electric in the near future. The government also provides grants to families who are interested in solar panels for their home. That will go a long way to help air pollution and our
Results from my Ecological Footprint Quiz made me realize that I am not living as ecologically friendly as I thought. Three major changes in my lifestyle that I wish to implement to reduce my footprint include reducing my solid waste, travel time by plane, and consumption of animal products. People in the U.S. generate more the 250 million tons of trash per year! What is disappointing is that a large majority of it is recyclable or can be composted. I am guilty of contributing to land pollution by buying numerous packaged products, paper plates, and not recycling as often as I should.
Data and statistics that will likely be collected and what exhibits or tables will be produced from this data
One of my personal goals for the project was to learn as much as I could about the sustainability issue facing us. I did this by participating in all of the projects that were done throughout the semester. The main project that occurred during the semester was the personal sustainability goals that we each set for ourselves. While doing the actions that we pledged to do, we learned different things about sustainability that we never knew before. One of the things that I learned was that, at Clemson, it is hard for students who want to recycle to be able to recycle. There are not the necessary facilities nearby our student housing to place our recyclables. I also learned that some actions that should be done to be sustainable are hard to do in the society that we live in. One of these activities that we do is the needless driving that Americans do in general. Since we live in a moving society, it is sometimes hard to do. An easy thing that everyone can do is to recycle some of his or her wastes. This can be done for most people at little or no extra effort than just throwing your trash away.
Getting involved in political affiliations, or voting for candidates that support sustainability is another solution. We can also support companies that prac...
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
In 1927, for the first time in history, the world’s population reached two billion people. In 2011, less than one hundred years later, it passed seven billion (Worldometers). Some may think that this is a positive increase, creating economic growth and significant innovations in fields such as agriculture, industry and medicine. However, the amount of difficulties our species will encounter over the next century because of this population increase, will greatly outweigh those few optimistic beliefs. For example, twelve to fifteen million hectares of forest are lost every year, the equivalent of thirty six football fields per minute (World Wildlife Fund). In 2011, there were an estimated nine and a half billion metric tonnes of carbon emissions put into our atmosphere (CO₂ Now). The list could go on and on, but ultimately, these are all just contributors to what might be humanity’s most challenging problem yet: climate change.
Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Scientists have seen a measurable increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in recent decades. There is considerable consensus within the scientific community that this increase is due largely to human activity. Actions such as driving long distances to work, taking frequent flights, and living in a large home can lead to large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. One way of measuring these emissions is through carbon footprints. A carbon footprint is an individual’s aggregate carbon emissions across various aspects of their life. Once an individual can see quantitatively the size of their carbon footprint, and compare these results to peer, national,
Environmental management awareness rose up for last decades until today. So in managing and avoiding environmental degradation happen continuously, the are several policy and regulation formed from time to time. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) And Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is two of environmental protection that being implemented. Most country have the same policy but in own standard of control. These policy primary goal is to ensure the implementation and enforcement
One fairly simple way that people can immediately contribute to the green movement is by recycling. “Recycling is the process of turning one products useful part or parts into a new product; this is done to conserve on the consumption of resources, energy and space used in landfills.” (Recycling Facts and Benefits) Most household paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, and cardboard products are recyclable. Many towns in the United States offer recycling services that will pick up your recyclables and transport them to a recycling facility. These facilities reuse the materials that the recyclables are made from and make new products. This process saves energy, and conserves resources by reducing the amount of renewable resources that would normally end up in a landfill or in an incinerator. These recycling plants “increase jobs in manufacturing while simultaneously increasing the Unite State’s competitiveness in industry.”(Recycling | Reduce, Reuse, Recycle | US EPA.)