(a) I took the quiz to calculate my ecological footprint and my score indicates it would take 4.8 Earths to sustain all the people on the planet if everyone lived like me. The quiz pointed out that the planet has 26.7 billion global acres of land and ocean and that is about 4.5 acres per person. So, if my lifestyle requires more than 4.5 acres, then the score equals more than one Earth. In that light, I didn’t think the score of 4.8 was so bad. Thinking about the ecological footprint just reminds me that all renewable resources come from the Earth. This reminds me of the importance of taking care of the Earth.
Part of the assignment is to evaluate my family’s lifestyle. My husband and I live together in a one story single family home. We have two German Shepherd Dogs that live with us. We have a Tahoe vehicle that we got so we could pull the motorcycle trailer. We also have a ten year old Toyota that we inherited when my mother died a couple of years ago. We try to drive the Toyota as often as possible because it cuts down on our gas bill. We have to drive the Toyota when we are taking the dogs to the vet and when we are transporting the grandchildren – because we need the room to fit the pets and to fit two car seats.
We both work in the downtown Jacksonville area, so we carpool to work. Our commute is only about 8 miles each way. In the Summertime we often ride the motorcycle to work (this cuts down on gas expense also.)
We are gone during the day so we do not consume a lot of electricity. Our heating system in the house is natural gas. We put in energy efficient windows about three years ago and that has made a big difference in our electricity costs. We have also switched to the energy efficient lightbulbs throughout our home, although I do not like them very much because they are slow to heat up and light up.
We do very little cooking at the house. We generally eat yogurt for breakfast. Then we meet for lunch downtown and have our big meal of the day. In the evenings we usually have meetings or other activities to attend – so we seldom eat supper at home. If we are at home in the evenings, then we usually snack by having some chips or cheese and crackers. We generally drink a glass or two of wine at night when we are home. Since it is just the two of us, I usually only run the dishwasher about twice a week and the washer and dryer about twice a week. We have tile floors – so there is no vacuuming. We recycle all of our glass, plastic, aluminum cans and newspapers. We have a recycle pickup every Tuesday.
I don’t think there are very many changes that we can make to our lifestyle. We are already recycling and cutting back on gasoline and energy as much as we can. I did look on the internet at an article by The OutPost that listed Ten Ways to Reduce Your Ecological Footprint to see if I could get any idea. Here are the suggestions and my responses to them:
1. Use energy efficient light bulbs – we do.
2. Reduce the amount of meat you eat – eat more veggies – this I can try. I know it would be beneficial for me to eat more fruits and vegetables.
3. Have a car with better gas mileage – we do.
4. Downsize your house next time you buy – we would probably do this, since our kids are no longer living at home and we do not need a large place.
5. Cut out a plane trip for the year – we seldom fly, so not really applicable to us.
6. Ride your bike - - this we do not do. We don’t even own any bicycles. We walk our two dogs almost every evening – if we were to take off on bicycles without them – they would be very upset.
7. Cancel newspaper subscription and cut down on junk mail – we try very hard to cut down on junk mail – but we do have a newspaper subscription, we like to read the paper in the mornings while we eat breakfast. I do not like reading the news on the computer.
8. Buy locally – we do buy at the local grocery store – but we do not travel to farmer’s markets or farms, because we do not eat that much at home. The fruit we buy at the store often gets rotten before we eat it.
9. Recycle – this we do.
10. Vote for candidates that want to make a real change for the environment. This is a good point and I will certainly think about this more in the future. This is one I can do.
I think one of the most important things I can do to help the ecological footprint is to set a good example for my young grandchildren. I am not unhappy with my quiz results. But taking the quiz makes me want to be more aware of what I am doing and makes me want to try harder to conserve and recycle.
(b) The assignment is to take a look at my specific consumption over a 24 hour period during a typical day.
1. energy usage – in a given day I use electricity to light my house and gas to run my dryer.
2. fuel usage – my husband and I carpool to work every weekday. On the weekends we usually ride our motorcycles. I don’t think we could use any less fuel than we do.
3. food intake – my food consumption has been discussed above. I can make an effort to eat less meat and more vegetables and fruits – this is something that would help the environment and be healthier for me and my family.
4. water use – my husband and I take showers each night and we generally wash about two loads of clothes a week. We do not water the yard with any regularity. Our dogs have to drink bottled water because the granules in the tap water was causing them problems – so we buy bottled water for us all to drink.
5. packaging – there is way too much packaging in the bills and other mail we receive, but I do not have any control over that. I seldom package anything for mailing. When I do send a package I use (recycle) the newspaper to stuff around the item.
“Ecological Footprint” is defined online at www.footprintnetwork.org as: A measure of how much biologically productive land and water an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates using prevailing technology and resource management practices.”
When I look at my score from the quiz – I realize that if we (humankind) do not design ways to live within the means of one planet – we will never achieve sustainability.
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