My Ecological Footprint

After going on the website www.footprintnetwork.org/calculator I found out that we would need 4 Planet Earth's to provide enough resources if everyone lived like I do!  According to the pie chart, services account for almost half of my ecological footprint.  In addition, I rely heavily on energy land, probably due to my high usage of electricity and electronic devices.

When I explored different scenarios to see how I could reduce my ecological footprint, I found that if I implemented all of the changes suggested we would need only 3.2 Planet Earths to provide enough resources if everyone lived like me.  This is still a lot, but if everyone participated in these activities, the earth would be sustainable for our population for a much longer period of time.

Some of the suggestions for reducing my ecological footprint included using solar panels to provide most of the electricity for my house, purchasing products that use less packaging or that are made out of 100% post-consumer recycled content material, using only energy efficient appliances, and using public transportation once a week instead of driving my car.  It was amazing to see how some of these small changes could reduce my ecological footprint by such a substantial amount.

After taking the ecological footprint quiz I realized that I rely too much on electronic gadgets and gasoline to get places.  From now on I want to try to reduce the amount of time per day that I am on my electronic devices.  This even includes turning lights off when a room is left, and maybe opening up a window instead of turning the air conditioner on.  I also want to try and carpool more often so that I am not contributing to the air pollution from driving my car so much.  If I am able to walk or ride a bike somewhere, I will try to do so instead of driving my car.

This quiz was very informational and extremely eye-opening for me, and I am glad that I got the opportunity to pinpoint the ways in which I can contribute to a better Planet Earth!