Eye Opener 1: My Ecological Footprint

What is an Ecological Footprint?
An ecological footprint is a way to calculate the impact you are making on the earth by measuring how much of the earth's resources your lifestyle uses. Although not all sources are consistent in their ways of measurement, more and more organizations are getting together to create a better way to measure your "footprint". Eventually, all of the measurements will be the same, and the instruments used to calculate your ecological footprint will be consistent--resulting in accurate number. I like to think of it as taking your blood pressure or heart rate, your individual factors may vary affecting the end result, but the measurement and measurement instruments are all the same. To learn more about an ecological footprint and the history of it, visit Wikipedia or Redefining Progress.

Upon visiting the EcoBusiness Links Environmental Directory website, I used three tools to calculate my ecological footprint. I will summarize my findings and reactions to each tool.

Travel Calculator

I chose to do the travel calculator first for one main reason: I TRAVEL ALL OF THE TIME. If I am not flying out to Colorado to see my boyfriend, I am driving 3 hours home and 3 hours back to visit my family on the weekend. This has three different calculators to choose from: the first calculates your pollutant emissions from your journeys, the second calculates the energy you use on your journeys (in calories), and the third is the full annual cost of car ownership.

I chose to measure my pollutant emissions using the first tool. After taking the survey I had a hard time understanding exactly what the scores meant. My personal score was a very detailed list of how many nitrogen oxide, particulates, and carbon dioxide pollutants I emit into the air each week. At the end of the survey, the computer generated score also includes a number of tips you can follow to lower your air pollutants while traveling. I thought the tip tool was the most helpful part of the calculator, especially since majority of people do not understand the acceptable range for pollutant numbers.
Some of the things I could do to lessen my pollution with my traveling would be to carpool to work and social events, to take a form of public transportation home on the weekends, and to fly out of the Duluth airport when I go to CO versus driving 200 miles in my car to get to MSP.

Visit the Travel Calculator link to find your own scores!

EarthDay Footprint Quiz

This quiz helps you to calculate how many planets it would take to support your lifestyle. It mainly focuses on your food, shelter, mobility, goods, and services.
My results were pretty alarming. It would take 4.7 earths to provide enough resources, and 20.7 global acres of the Earth's productive land to support my lifestyle! I couldn't believe that my number was so high. At the end of this quiz, there were also tips you could read to help reduce your ecological footprint.
What I appreciated most about this quiz was how interactive it was. I feel like it gave an incredibly good representation of the environment before me, and then afterwards. As I went through the quiz, an apartment complex added, a gar, pollution, recycling bins...it was really motivational to watch as the pure empty environment became cluttered with my lifestyle objects.
After taking this quiz I have learned a few things. First of all, I tend to have very eco-friendly eating habits. I think that has a lot to do with me not eating any meat (however, I do eat poultry and dairy). I also learned that I fly way too much. At this point I can't really help that because lets be honest, a 2 hour plane ride or a 13 hour drive. There is only so much time in a weekend...
Some things I would like to change would be the amount that I recycle and the amount that I buy home-grown foods. Almost all of my foods are processed, and I never recycle. The most I recycle is using old worksheets and assignments as scratch paper. I can definitely work on both of those.

Carbon Calculator
The final quiz I took calculated how much CO2 pollution I cause by taking flights. According to the CarbonNeutral Company airplanes are one of the fastest growing sources of global warming gases. The good news is that there are ways to make my traveling on airplanes a little "greener". Although there is no way to take a specific "green" airplane, I was able to calculate exactly how much carbon is emitted into the atmosphere each time I fly. Then, after getting my results, the website provided a few service projects that would neutralize my flight. The service projects that were equal to one round trip flight to Colorado were centered around reducing carbon emissions from my other daily life activities. Such things include using a greener form of energy, and recycling certain amounts.
I didn't think this quiz was very helpful. I don't think that by reducing your carbon emission in other areas of your life neutralizes the carbon emissions you emit into the atmosphere by flying frequently. Overall, the quiz did give me some good lifestyle changes to consider making, and has helped me to gain knowledge on the effects of my traveling on the environment.

My Opened Eyes
Obviously my lifestyle is making a huge impact on the environment. Through this exercise I have learned that I can be just as beneficial to the environment as I am detrimental. With all of the little things that I do each day, I can lessen my ecological footprint. I am intrigued by all of the suggestions the quiz/calculator websites provided, however I think I am only seriously considering changing a few things. After this activity, I would mostly like to work on the amount of food I buy locally, buying more fresh and less processed, recycling more often, and using public transportation instead of my own vehicle more often.