Blogs
1. Ecological Footprint Calculator -Link
- What part of your ecological footprint most surprised you?
One part of my ecological footprint that really surprised me was that it would take 4.7 planet earths to provide enough resources for my current lifestyle. Considering that I thought I lived in an average daily life of other people, I didn’t think it would take much more than one planet earth.
- How did your footprint compare to your city’s average and your country’s average?
The average ecological footprint for the city of Los Altos is 8.6 hectares. My personal footprint calculated by the link given is 8.417613536 hectares. That rounds to approximately 8.4 which is less than 8.6. According to my research, the united states and los altos were considered the same thing. Therefore, my footprint is less than my city and country’s average footprint.
- What parts of your footprint do you feel is possible to reduce? What parts don’t?
I think my family drives much more than the average family. Because we play golf, we have to drive to a lot of other places to play tournaments. If we didn’t drive as much, I probably wouldn’t have such a large ecological footprint, and wouldn’t need 4.7 planet earths to satisfy the needs if everyone lived like I do.
3. Water Footprint Calculator -Link (Global North Schools), Link (Global South Schools)
- Were you surprised by how much water you consumed?
According to the second link given (the first link did not work on my device), I consume about 186 m3of water per year. I am not surprised with how much water I consume because 186 m3is about average for a person in the U.S.
- How did your footprint compare to your country’s and the world's average? (You will need to research this.)
According to my research they were about the same, meaning the amount of water that I consumed was about average for an American.
- What parts of your footprint do you feel is possible to reduce? What parts don’t?
There are some things I can do to save water, but others that demand water use. For example, I need to take showers, which obviously would play a role in my water consumption. However, maybe we could get more eco-friendly home appliances that don’t use as much water. Some of these home appliances that apply could include dishwashers, sinks, and showers.
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1 Comment(s)
Hi Sophie, my name's Summer and I'm one of your mentors on this project. Aside from transportation, are there are other reasons you can think of that your current lifestyle would take up 4.7 planet earths? I was thinking that perhaps the reason that it seems like you're living an average life yet you got a high number could be related to the existence of other people on the planet to take up far fewer resources. So that although you're average in your society, perhaps there are other societies where the average is very different. What do you think?
Summer Cowley
Sep 2, 2017