Texas A & M: Environmental Analysis

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.

You will use the EPA’s household emissions calculator to quantitatively identify three to five everyday products or practices that contribute most to your footprint and identify measurable solutions to each. That is, you will estimate savings of both carbon emissions and money that can be achieved via the solutions. In the study questions, reflect upon your results and relate them to themes covered in Contemporary Environmental Issues.

Thanksgiving is a time to get together with family, eat a delicious meal and reflect upon what we are thankful for. During the busiest time of year, one of the last things people think about is the effect our favorite holidays have on the environment, and yet, it is something we need to consider. Recently, Carnegie Mellon University did a study on people’s ecological footprints during the Thanksgiving holiday. In their article titled “Thanksgiving dinner’s carbon footprint: A state-by-state comparison” published on ScienceDaily.com, the University discussed and compared the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our earth’s atmosphere during the Thanksgiving holiday.

While reading Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man, I had a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. One of my underlying thoughts throughout the whole book was, “Well damn, I am so sure I would never, ever, be able to do most of this in my life.” In all honesty, it at first made me feel kind of bad about how I lived; it made me feel as though I did not do enough for the environment and thought only of myself. The first thing that came to mind when I learned what this book was even about was a short online quiz of sorts. The purpose of the quiz was to determine how many planet Earth’s we would need if everyone on Earth lived how I did. My result was that over five planets would be needed. This made me think about how while I was using over five

Environmental Impact of Personal Lifestyle: Behavior # 2 For many years I have contributed to biodegradables that end up in landfill sites. I have been continuously purchasing water bottles my whole life. Plastic is used almost everywhere, I have been using plastic bags when I go grocery shopping and I have never tried to get reusable bags.

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

There is an array of options and approaches to healthy living. The text book written by Rebecca J Donatelle, Health the Basics, suggests ways of shopping to save the planet by purchasing products with minimal packaging, reusable material, free of dyes, sulfates, or parabens, and even purchasing products already pre-recycled. The U.S. government’s website for the Environmental Protection Agency provides information on how to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Lifestyle choices anywhere from using old food to make compost and reduce waste to donating reusable goods such as clothing, toys, and electronics can help improve the health of both the individual making these choices and the community around them. This site also offers those willing to recycling links on how to properly dispose of paper, plastics, batteries, glass, oil, and tires –all of which enter ecosystems every day and can hold potentially detrimental results. The website Earth911 is much like the government site, however its user friendly design and approach allows site visitors to immediately see the being environmentally healthy is essential to healthy living in general because what we do directly effects how we live. By sharing the harsh reality of how we affect the environment, Earth911 hopes to shows its clever ideas for healthy environmental living such as having a garden, traveling wisely, and living eco-smart

Many Americans do not realize the full extent of how much we negatively affect the environment. There has been quite a bit of research and studies conducted on how to become more environmentally friendly; however, these are simply ideas and without action taken from citizens it is all worthless. It is quite exhilarating to have a goal and then have that goal be achieved; you get to see all your hard work be paid off. Many goals are inspired from one thing or another. The documentary No Impact Man makes you feel motivated to take a stand and help the environment. In the documentary, it is awesome to see how hard this family worked through the year to make a change and aid the environment. After calculating my carbon emissions, finding out how

As college student completing my degree through an online format I am making a considerable smaller carbon footprint when compared to those students pursuing their degree through normal methods. I am considered a non-traditional student and therefore I would be commuting to and from school every day which contributes to the unavoidable pollution from operating a motor vehicle. I also produce less waste then a typical student due to all my assignments, papers and exams are all completed electronically which produces zero trash that either has to be recycled or taken to a dump.

This article critically examines the ways in which individuals could help reduce the impacts of global warming. The author challenges that every individual could significantly minimise the effects of global warming by adopting to a more responsible lifestyle.

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.

Question “Do you know that using cars for the planet is like smoking cigarettes for people?”

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.

In order to be an integral part in saving the Earth’s environment and ensuring resources for future generations, the way individuals live needs to change. Being fortunate enough to reside in one of the nation’s most developed countries, I wanted to make sure the way I have been living has been meeting the standards set by sustainable living. Using the overall environmental footprint provided by Global Footprint Network, I was able to pinpoint the areas in my life that needed to improve in order for me to be more sustainable. I chose to use this Footprint calculator because it gives you a breakdown on how many resources from the planet are needed in order to provide for your living standards. Once you have input the information, the calculator provides a general ecological footprint explanation and gives real case scenarios in which you can do to reduce it. The results for my footprint were as follows: If everyone were to live the way I do, we would need 5.3 planet earths to provide enough resources. It would take 23.6 global acres of land for energy production, which would emit 23.6 tons of carbon dioxide, and the biggest impacts on my personal footprint included 36 percent of services, 21 percent food and 19 percent mobility.

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