An eco footprint is a measure of human demands on the Earth's ecosystems. This measure is standardized and measures for the natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate itself.
I live a very simple life. I do not have television, I do not have an airconditioner or a heater. I share a care with my boyfriend. I do laundry once a week, and do not use paper products or buy plastic bottles.
With that said, I thought going into this quiz on my eco footprint, I would come back leaving a small print on our Earth. I was wrong and upset by this! My quiz results say that if everyone lived like me, we would need 4 planet Earths to provide enough resources. The "standard footprint" is 4.6, so I do have some room to congratulate myself, however not as much as I thought!
My footprint breaks down by the global acres needed to support my production as well. To support my lifestyle, it takes 17.9 global acres of the Earth's productive area. This means it takes 18.5 tons or carbon dioxide!
After learning about my footprint and being shocked by the results, I decided I would explore scenarios to see how I can reduce my footprint. What I got from this is that solar panels would help to significantly reduce my footprint. The downside to this is that solar panels are super expensive! Perhaps this is something I can work towards in the future.
Another way to reduce my footprint is by using public transportation. I have to be honest though, I know I will not do this. Therefore I continued to look at other ways that I could reduce my footprint. Purchasing recycled paper products and computer paper as well as recycled paper for my school binders, is another great way I could reduce my footprint. If every American did this, we would use 645 million fewer global acres, an area that could cover 484 million football fields!
If everyone lived like I do, the maximum population Earth could sustain would be: 7.082 Billion/4 which equals: 1.77 Billion!
Test your own footprint:
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