When I first did my ecofootprint I did the general questions and had the average American ecofootprint of 4.6 (earths) this time I did the more specific data and after doing the quiz the impact of my footprint is 5.7 planet earths. This actually shocked me, just getting more specific versus general information there was a drastic change in numbers. Services is the largest area of my ecological footprint with 36%, shelter is my second largest with 21%, mobility with 18%, goods with 17%, and food with 9%. Theres an area in the “explore scenarios” area that says “If you pledged to use public transportation one day more each week instead of driving your car,” if I every American did this, we’d use 352 million fewer global acres that could cover 264 football fields. The only thing with that is our public transportation in Fort Myers isn’t as accessible nor is it like New York City. I live about 20 miles away from school and live about 3 miles from the public bus stop. If I pledged to reduce the amount of animal products that I currently eat by half I could go down to 5.5 planet earths. If every American reduced the amount of meat they eat by half we’d use 645 million fewer global acres, an area that could cover 484 million football fields (now that is even more frightening then the public transportation statistic).
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| My ecological foot print.. scary. |
If everyone lived like I did we would need 5.6 planet earths to provide enough resources. Nothing makes you feel more terrible then to see that, it’s almost scary that I could contribute that much to the negative impact on our planet. To support my lifestyle it take 25.1 global acres of the Earth’s productive area. A ton of energy land, crop land, grazing land, forest land, built-up land and fishing grounds. If 8 billion people live on this one single planet and everyone lived the way I did we first off would no longer have a planet. This quiz even doing it for the second time has completely opened my eyes. Makes me want to walk to the store now instead of a drive a few miles down the road...
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