Research Essay(3. the Decisions We Make as Individuals Have a Significant Impact on the Environment.)

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

Population in different countries in different areas have the environmental impact. The ecological footprint is the inverse of carrying capacity and represents the amount of land needed to support a given population. An example for ecological footprint is, the Dutch need a land area 15 times larger than that of the Netherlands to support their population.

[6] A. J. East, "What is a Carbon Footprint? An overview of definitions and methodologies,"

There are many things that contributed yo your carbon footprint. This is the easiest thing about your carbon footprint, and that is measuring your direct emissions. Everything that you own and everything in your house, dorm apartment has all been produced by greenhouse gasses. Everything you have has gone through the process emits C02 because it has been shipped in order to get to you or the store that you bought it from. This includes the hats you wear, your TV, your fan, toys, appliances and all the other things you own. Food is also including in having an effect on your carbon footprint. Beef is an example of a food that contributes to your carbon footprint because it comes from cattle and that is where methane is being produced which is a powerful greenhouse gas in their digestive system. Gain is one of the main foods that is being fed to cattle, and so therefore that produces carbon emissions from the chemicals that are being used to grow it and then gas is being burned to transport it (money crashers). It is proven that a vegetarian diet produces less C02 then a meat diet (live-strong). This is showing that having a vegetarian diet can

The Ecological Footprint quiz I took said that if everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle, we would need 3.95 Earths. The average acres of consumption in the United States for Carbon, Food, Housing, and Goods and Services are 91.43, 65.74, 31.58, and 57.66 respectively. My score for Carbon, Food, Housing, and Goods and Services are 36.48, 65.73, 25.35, and 25.78 respectively. My Footprint share by pastureland, marine fisheries, forestland, and cropland biomes was 27.96%, 20.29%, 39.28% and 12.47%. The forest biome provides wood and paper (packaging and houses), the marine biome provides seafood, farm animals graze on pastures and fruits and vegetables are grown in cropland.

According to Wackernagel et al. (1999), “the ecological footprint assesses people's use of natural capital by comparing their resource consumption and waste production to the regenerative capacity of the earth” (p. 604). Overall, an ecological footprint analyzes the impact a community or person has on the environment by assessing their use of natural resources and production of waste; this assessment is compared to the regenerative capacity of the earth and expressed as the amount of natural resources (e.g. number of earths) required to sustain specific levels of consumption and waste production.

The link is to a report, titled Ecosystems and Human Well-Being, A Report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The report covers ecosystem changes and how that is intertwined with humans and their well-being. The ecosystems of the earth are complex and have many variables. Human actions can have a significant impact on these ecosystems and the report aims to seeks and apply scientific analysis and reasoning to how human actions have and need to change to support these diverse ecosystems focusing on sustainability.

According to Appendix A, if every individual had my lifestyle, two planets would have been required for the adequate provision of resources. Surprisingly, to support my needs, an emission of 7.4 tons of carbon dioxide as well as 4.2 global hectares of the Earth’s productive land would be needed. The entailed land compromises of:

After taking the Ecological Footprint Quiz, it was calculated that we would need 4.9 earths if everyone lived my lifestyle. This is fairly congruent with the American average of 5 earths. While I know that my life style is not sustainable, it is very easy to lose track of just how unsustainable the average American life is. According to the pie chart breakdown, 48% of my ecologic impact is in “services” area. In further researching information about this, I found that these services are not variable in the calculator; everyone taking the quiz has a portion of their nation’s “services” footprint simply due to living in that country. As is described on the website, “service areas include (but are not limited to) health care, entertainment, restaurants, real estate, legal services, government and the military” (Global Footprint Calculator, 2015). It is interesting that the government services that I may or may not take part of are included in my footprint simply because I live in the United States. I suppose that one way I can lower my ecological footprint is simply by moving to a different country.

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.

In order to support my lifestyle, it would take 22.6 global acres of the Earth’s productive area. Specifically, my footprint would take 24 tons of Carbon dioxide. The biggest global acres needed for my lifestyle would be energy land, along with forest land, and crop land. The least number of acres needed for my footprint were grazing land, built-up land, and fishing ground. I feel that these

Humans tend effect their world in different ways, but one specific way would be the ecological footprint of a human. What does ecological footprint mean? Ecological footprint is the effect of a person, society or community that effects the environment in certain way it could good or bad. People impact the world in different ways some recycle others tend to cut down more trees and threw away their trash on the grass or on the roads. With the lifestyle in the 20th century a lot has changed quick example would be hybrid cars are being manufactured so their could be less pollution in the air. As a result of the horrific past lifestyle of humans that has caused changes to the world, have forced humans to decrease ones ecological footprint.

The footprint calculator also made suggestions regarding ways to reduce my impact on the planet. For example, I could reduce the

What exactly is an ecological footprint? Do you think this is a useful measure for understand and evaluating your impact on the natural environment? Why or why not?