- I discovered that if everyone in the world lived life the way I lived it, we would need 5.2 Earths to provide enough resources. This pretty close to the average of the United States of 5 Earths needed to provide enough resources. This isn’t really a positive result, but at least I know that I am not exponentially worse than the rest of the United States. Honestly I was kind of surprised that I needed so many planets to sustain my way of life.
- The three sections that I maximized were meat consumption, waste/recycling habits and transportation. All of these maximizations had similar effects of amount of planets needed to sustain that style of living. Meat consumption increased the number of planets needed the least amount, from the original 5.2 to 7.5 planets. Both waste/recycling habits and transportation increased the planets needed to almost eight! These increases are understandable. I think, as an individual, I would choose to eat less meat, and buy more groceries locally. I also feel like I could reduce my carbon footprint by taking public transportation instead of always driving to school. And I should take more opportunities to carpool as well. I could also, instead of just recycling, try to also buy products made from recycled materials.
- As a society, I believe that we need to take initiative and focus on recycling more and buying more items made from recycled material. Also, to decrease our carbon footprint, we should try to take public transportation when we can, instead of driving places. The planet would also benefit from trying to purchase produce and meat that are locally grown. Also, if we made more of an effort to recycle (which is the most obvious solution), we would be able to decrease our footprint significantly! These small changes could culminate into such a decrease of our carbon footprint.
Category Archives: Footprint
My Ecological Footprint Analysis
The number of planet Earths that would be required if everyone on Earth lived my lifestyle is 4.4, which is just under the national average of 5 planet Earths.
Maximizing transportation seemed to have the largest impact on my ecological footprint, raising the number of planets Earths form 4.4 to 8.9. Transportation would also be easy for me to cut down on as a New Yorker if I use the subway/bus more often. I’ve also noticed that maximizing electricity usage and shelter space had a large impact on the footprint. I could reduce the amount of packaged and processed foods I eat. This may be difficult with my busy lifestyle, but it
Society as a whole can cut down on consumption of fossil fuels by using public transportation rather than driving everywhere. It would also be beneficial to cut down on plastic consumption and recycle instead, which is capable of harming other organisms in our ecosystem through pollution.
4.4 Earths
So, right off the bat I was very pleased that my carbon footprint was below the national average by 0.6 Earths. I’m not the largest environmentalist, so I was happily surprised by this. 
Next I maximized consumerism- buying new clothes and furniture. The number of earths increased to 6.
Next I increased all the food intake, making me eat much more eat and dairy products. That increased the number of earths to 7.
Finally, I increased the amount of public transportation I take. This increased the number of earths to 4.8 which is a 0.4 Earth addition.
Thinking about how I could bring my own footprint down further than it already is, I could probably become a vegetarian or a vegan. I could also seek out local food. I can decrease the amount of energy I use, especially because in my apartment we don’t always turn the lights off. I don’t know what degree these changes would help the environment, but every little bit counts.
In terms of what our society need to do to be more sustainable, I think our chief concern should be to find another hospitable planet because I lack the confidence that our major governments can enact change fast enough. Otherwise, I’m reminded of wartime rationing programs that were accompanied by propaganda. If those programs worked to get the American citizen to do their part with victory gardens and a “make-do” attitude, I wonder if they could work again in the face of a failing environment policy.
Footprint Calculations
1. My carbon footprint is 23.8 tons of carbon dioxide and this requires 22.4 global acres to sustain. This would be about five planets worth of land if everyone on earth lived the way I did.
2. This is a graph comparing my global footprint to the national average to the footprint obtained when three factors were maximized.
Discussion Continued:
1. My footprint is slightly higher than that of the national average if we compare based on acreage, but is the same if we estimate based on planetary land needed.
2. Since I depend on public transportation to get to school everyday, I don’t think this is something I can change for now. However, I do eat meat on a daily basis and if I could, I would try to eat less animal derivatives overall. This should decrease my footprint by about one to two average earths if everyone else lived the way I did.
3. As we have discussed in class, there is no one perfect solution to making the world more sustainable. There is always a challenge to determining what resource is “more worth” saving. However, I think that getting larger institutions to adopt some characteristically individual-based approaches to sustainability would be a good start. For instance, my family recycles, but it would be great if larger organizations like schools, supermarkets, office buildings, and hospitals, for instance, started recycling more regularly. I think it would also be good to encourage people to eat fewer foods that contain animal derivatives. These are practices that are usually held responsible by individuals, but if larger policy and institutions made more of an effort to promote these practices, I think we would be making a lot more progress towards living sustainably.
If Only We Could All Carpool
It would take 3.9 Earths if everybody lived the way I do. I’m pretty proud of that number (I guess) since the average for people in the USA is 5 Earths. Woohoo, go me! Although, the amount of acres I used is slightly above average, I had 17.4 and the average is 17. Not bad.
I think the main thing is I don’t drive, I carpool with my girlfriend whenever I go anywhere, and to get to school I use the bus (public transit). Since my footprint changed the most drastically altering the transportation, I would say that’s probably the main thing. There’s simply too many people driving their cars here, endless traffic. The maximization of my diet proved to be both scary and unsurprising. I wish I could eat more meats and fruits and vegetables, but I can’t do both in order to help the planet. But it’s bad for my health to eat all this cheap processed food that I eat. I recycle quite a bit, so the recycling might not do as much as I had hoped. I’m going to need to recycle more. The graph below shows the maximization data, with the scale on the left referring to the amount of Earths required to sustain my lifestyle.
I think we need to create better and more reliable public transportation. I think that should be the start. The LIRR for example should keep prices low, not increase, and more people should be riding the trains. Down with single drivers driving cars! Carpool people!
Ecological Footprint Analysis (will do in class 12/12)
In class on 12/12 we will be discussing what it means to be sustainable as well as what levels and scales we need to act to achieve sustainability: individual, local, global. You will then complete an ecological footprint analysis and vary the parameters to test the difference you could make to reduce individual carbon footprints.
Ecological Footprint Analysis
footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/gfn/page/calculators/
1. Calculate your carbon footprint and how many planets and acres are needed to sustain a lifestyle similar to yours (use the detailed parameters).
2. Pick three parameters to maximize (e.g. diet, transportation, energy) and determine how that changes the footprint. Make a bar graph that shows how many planets OR acres you need based on the parameter maximized (also include your original calculation).
(NOTES: Can measure transport distance with Google maps; NYC gets 11% of energy from renewables)
Discussion QUESTIONS to answer in you blog post:
1. How does your original footprint compare to the country average (US per capita is 5 planets and 17 acres)?
2. What changes could you make and what level would it make a difference, it any? Include your bar graph.
3. What do you think, overall, we need to do as a society, as a world, to really make a more sustainable society?
