Eye Opener- Ecological Footprint

Ecological footprint is the demand humans put on the earth's ecosystem. Most of what I learned about ecological footprint comes from wikipedia.com. Quizzes to inform people on their ecological footprints was developed in 2002. I read about ecological footprint progress at the redefining progress website. This gave people a chance to look at their effect on the environment and what they can do to change their ways.

I took a quiz about my ecological footprints at the Ecological Footprints Calculator website. I was asked about transportation, foods I eat, living, and recycling habits. I was able to find out my ecological footprints breakdown was mostly used by services like transportation,electricity usage, etc. When I am at school I use the bus everyday instead of driving to school. It not only saves me money but it also is better for the pollution when less people are on the roads. The least percent of my ecological footprint was mobility. I found out that if everyone lived like me, we would need 4.4 planet earths to provide enough resources to accommodate. After finding this out it is rather disappointing on my part, I need to make a effort to make sure I am doing my part to keep the planet clean. If everyone lived like me, we would need 4.9 earths to sustain life (From Ecological footprints). The travel site seems to think I travel about average. However, I do not completely agree with this. I think I travel less when I am in Duluth rather than when I am at home in the cities.

A few small things I can do to change my behavior are buy items that do not have a lot of packaging,continue to search for a recycling can instead of throwing things in the garbage, and take public transportation more often.