My original footprint is 4.1 planets and 18.2 acres. Compared to the United States, the number of planets needed to sustain my type of lifestyle is way below the average for the Unites States, but the acres of land needed to sustain my lifestyle if much higher than average. This is probably because I don’t consume any meat products at all, but I do travel by bus, car, and train a lot. Each day’s commute to Brooklyn College is more than 50 miles, so that really is a huge chunk of my energy/land usage.

When I maximized three different parameters, the number of planets and acres of land needed to sustain my hypothetical lifestyle drastically increased. For the first parameter, I increased my meat consumption from none to the maximum, which was daily, I believe. This caused both the planets and acres needed to increase, from 4.1 to 6.5 and from 18.2 to 28.8. This was truly shocking to me and actually quite comforting, knowing that my current lifestyle’s carbon footprint is way less than someone who does eat meat everyday. Its even more of an incentive to sustain my lacto-vegetarian lifestyle and continue living the life I am.

The second parameter that I maximized was the use of personal transportation. This caused my carbon footprint to increase to a whopping 7.1 planets and 31.7 acres of land. This was the biggest increase and it is expected, because cars release so much carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Increasing my personal car use would be very harmful to the environment, and in a way it is also comforting for me to think how much of a less impacts I am making on the environment by using public transportation rather than my own car.

The last parameter I maximized was energy usage. The number of planets and acres needed for me to sustain that lifestyle increased to 6 and 26.7, respectively. This was quite interesting, because it also brought me content to think that all that I do to save energy really does make an impact. I always make sure to turn off all the lights in our house before we leave or go to sleep. I also use only one room’s light at a time, and never leave electric decorations on all night or at all day. The heat is also left on the minimum that I need for that day, around 60 or 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Though these are simple things, in the long run, they do help out. Overall, here is the comparison of all four parameters and by looking at this, it is quite obvious that my current lifestyle is the most sustainable of the four.

Changes that I could probably make to my lifestyle would be to buy more local, organic goods, reduce the wasteful purchase of packaged goods, and take more public transportation. However, these aren’t that ideal because I live in a family setting. It is very difficult to follow a non-wasteful lifecycle when one person wants this packaged food, that new type of cereal, and so on. Also, I do have a recyclables compartment in my house, but I wish to make it even more efficient and inclusive. I have three cans for paper, plastic and cans, but I want to make a new compartment for compost or organic goods. In addition to those changes, I want to try and convince my parents to install solar panels on our house. Not only will it help us on electricity, but also it will harness renewable energy, which I believe more people and corporations should make use of. These are just a few examples of what I could do on an individual level to help reduce my carbon footprint.

I believe, that whatever changes I would make to my lifestyle to make it more sustainable would only be to lift the burden of ecological sin from my conscience. Other than that, it is really too small of an impact to help save the planet or stop global warming. There needs to be a global movement to get corporations and other big producers of CO₂ and other harmful pollutants to reduce their carbon footprints. It is them that play a major part in what wastes get put out into the atmosphere and it is only them who can help reduce the global carbon footprint.