Ecological Footprint

Here's my first assignment! 
So, if everyone lived the way that I do, it would take 5.1 Earths to provide enough resources for everyone to survive. That's insane! 

I really try hard to be environmentally friendly by recycling and buying energy efficient products. However, I do work full time and my job is 20 miles away so I knew that would affect my footprint! The amount of meat and products not grown locally that someone consumes also makes your ecological footprint bigger and I had never even thought about that before! Products not grown locally have to be processed and shipped and that just adds to other parts of the footprint. It's really crazy when you think about it.

According to the Global Footprint Network's website, - I provided the link below so that you can find out your ecological footprint too!- services, things you pay for to get done, accounts for the largest part of my ecological footprint, and goods, tangible items, the smallest.

After getting my results I clicked "explore scenarios" to find out ways to lessen the size of my footprint. The suggestions given to me were to eat half the meat I eat now, purchase more recycled material, use more energy renewable sources such as solar panels, as well as buy only energy-efficient appliances, use public transportation at least once a week, and vacation locally instead of flying. If I were to do all of this my ecological footprint would go down to 4 Earths! It's amazing how much of a difference doing these simple things can make.

Here are some snapshots from the website!

 






Check it out yourself! http://www.footprintnetwork.org/calculator