Ecological Footprint Report By Krystle Ong Rui Xin ( S3464170 )

Ecological footprint helps us understand human pressure on the planet. It compares human demand with the planet Earth’s ecological capacity to regenerate it is important to change our lifestyles in order to lead a fulfilling life without degrading the environment.

“Many current discussions about sustainability focus on the ways in which human activity...can be maintained in the future without exhausting all of our current resources… there has been a close correlation between the growth of human society and environmental degradation - as communities grow, the environment often declines” (603).

Before I had seen the results to my ecological footprint quiz, I was under the impression that my habits were rather minimalist versus that of some of the individuals I know personally. But the fact of the matter is in order for planet Earth to sustain my living habits, it would take 4.4 total planets to generate enough resources. That number seems absurd, and I now have a better grasp on the reality that I need to make a change to my lifestyle habits. If I am to leave the world behind to someone else, I need to limit my consumer habits and practice a more sustainable lifestyle.

The ecological quizzes asked about individual behaviors relating to transportation, energy, food, recycling, pollution, and possessions. Essentially, all behaviors mentioned in the quizzes have some sort of impact on the environment. Both quizzes asked about what type of transportation was most frequently used and also about solar energy. In addition, the quizzes focused on how much you eat and what you eat. These certain behaviors are featured in the quizzes because they have the potential to contribute to a carbon, or ecological footprint. This “footprint” is one’s impact on the environment. One’s impact on the environment is made up of small decisions--either positive or negative--over his or her lifetime. These decisions can include: choosing

Last night’s plenary speaker, Tensie Whelan, former President of the Rainforest Alliance, discussed the issues of sustainability and the natural environment. Currently the Earth’s ecological footprint is 1.6 planets. Whelan and Rainforest Alliance have sought to transform land-use practices, business practices, and consumer behavior through their use of a frog seal on certified goods. The standards set by them have made social responsibility profitable by reaching out to millions of consumers through responsible businesses.

Economic analysis that weighs all costs and benefits of a particular model must include environmental considerations. That is to say, the potential for short-term economic losses caused by conservation in the present, should be measured against the dividends that conservation will pay in the future (Nordhaus, 2007). If the earth is truly our most valuable commodity, then analysis under these conditions should recognize that if a “dollar value” were placed on environmental sustainability, more often than not it would outweigh any initial monetary loss resultant of the implementation of more sustainable practices.

The ecological footprint theory and explanation was developed by Mathis Wackernagel and William E. Rees in 1996, to account for the earth’s natural resource depletion and consumption associated with humanity (Bunker). Greg Bunker, author of Ecological Footprint Analysis defines the ecological footprint as “the total area of biologically productive land and water required by an entity to sustain its current consumption levels. The Ecological Footprint analysis has been applied to countries, businesses,

The concept of footprint analysis is that it can change overtime, depending on the number of individuals living in that particular area and by how much they consume in terms of energy, technology, goods and resources. It gave me an idea of how much land water is needed to support my lifestyle, determine my population, geography, climate, food and needs for energy. Moreover, it gives me a few ideas of what I can do to reduce my ecological footprint in each consumption category such as transportation, housing, food and goods.

My human footprint was always either over or under Japan. But a couple times it was at the highest. I eat a lot of eggs so that made my human footprint worse, because of the electricity and resources to make the egg. It’s a good thing I don’t waste a lot of gas, since I don't really drive any miles. Also because I don’t read any newspapers I’m very much helping the environment, because less carbon dioxide is released. Me drinking 4 soda’s a week isn’t bad but not really helping that much either I guess this one is in the middle. Everything else was either above or below average, so I’d my human footprint is pretty good but not bad at all.

An ecological footprint calculator determines how much land area it takes to support the lifestyle of each individual on planet Earth. Ecological footprint calculators give individuals the opportunity to discover their major areas of resource consumption and to find out what pursuable measures are needed to utilize fewer resources. At the end of the quiz, the calculator reveals how many planet Earths it takes to support the lifestyle of each individual. An individual does not realize the excessive utilization of resources because a necessary supply is constantly available. Fortunately, human influence can have a positive impact on the planet because environmental awareness improves the health of the ecosystem and preserves each species. Thus,

Because carbon footprints are such hot topics in the news these days, it's an ideal topic for this particular paper. As concerns about global warming and potential climate change have continued to evolve the term "carbon footprint" has become ingrained in many people's consciousness. Though the large Fortune 500 companies focus on reduction of their own carbon footprints, individuals can help in their own small way as well.

This essay reviews my personal carbon footprint and discusses ways to manage it and reduce some of the biggest areas of my resource consumption. The footprint calculator that I used required that I answer a series of questions about my consumption habits, and based on the answers I provided, showed the impact of my lifestyle on the planet. The footprint calculator uses data for selected countries, based on National Footprint Accounts. The online calculator asked questions to determine how to distribute the ecological footprint into different categories based on the country's average consumption profile. In addition to calculating the amount of carbon a person is responsible for through their daily activities, the calculator also estimated a total ecological footprint to represent the amount of land and sea area required to provide the resources a person needs and to absorb their carbon emissions.

Sustainability is a topic that has become very important in recent years. Sustainability is defined as, “the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely.” ("Finding and Resolving the Root Causes of the Sustainability Problem", 2014)

Every living being are directly or indirectly depend on natural environment. Sustainability helps to balance financial, social, and environmental factors to facilitate responsible business decision making over the immediate and long term. . Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Oxford University press 1987, p.43). Sustainability is also being protective and aware of use of natural resources and development that meets the need of present and everything that is need for our survival and well being depends, directly or indirectly on our natural environment. According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Sustainability is

Through the ecological footprint experiment I conducted, I realized that if everybody were to live in this manner, we would be in need of 6.13 earths. This is the amount of the land’s ecosystem habitat that the human race today would require in order to survive sustainably (Dunn, 2008). The online ecological footprint calculator is a very innovative and informative application that poses great benefit to the society. The ecological footprint calculator calculates the amount of inputs and outputs of an individual’s lifestyle in effect of the natural resources within their region of habitat. This consequently enables for a self-assessment at the individual level, where one can follow specific measures to reduce their ecological footprint to