Blogs
Ecological Footprint Calculator
1. What part of your ecological footprint most surprised you?
The part of my ecological footprint that surprised me most was that we would need 6.2 Planet Earths to provide enough materials if everybody lived like me.
2. How did your footprint compare to your city’s average and your country’s average?
The average ecological footprint for Los Altos and the United States of America is 8.6 hectares, and my average is 7.2 hectares. My footprint was below my city’s and country’s average. I think a reason for this is because the energy used in my house is used efficiently, resulting in a less use of energy in our house.
3. Find a location with a smaller carbon footprint from yours, within your own country if possible. What is different about this community from your own? What can you learn from this?
Oregon has a smaller footprint than I do. My footprint was 12.4 tonnes, and Oregon’s is 9.49. I think I can reduce the amount of driving I do, and also travel less by airplane and by boat.
4. What parts of your footprint do you feel is possible to reduce? What parts don’t?
I think I could reduce the amount of land energy I use, because I noticed I used more land energy than my tablemates. I don’t think I can reduce the amount of grazing land and fishing grounds I use because I don’t really own a land for grazing or any fishing. grounds.
5. What do you think are the limits and possibilities in affecting climate change by the reduction of individual footprints?
I think that we can only reduce our carbon footprints so far, because eventually we would need the basic necessities of living, and even some of these necessities add to your carbon footprint. However, if everybody started using electricity instead of gas, and traveled less using gas, we could reduce the amount of pollution, but we can never have it at 0. For example, some factories that sell necessary living items might have machines that can’t run on electricity, and can only run on gas. There is nothing we can do about this, because if there weren’t any machines then we wouldn’t have that item.
Climate Challenge
1. What strategy did you take in Climate Challenge? Was it effective in reducing emissions?
Reducing emissions meant the public was more happy, but if the public was completely satisfied, then our resources would be scarce. However, if I picked all the cards that gave us more resources, the public would get angry and I would be voted out of office. Reducing emissions was a bit affective, but at the same time there were some downfalls.
2. What did you think of how the strategy cards represented resources? Do you think some of the strategies/policies would have different impacts than the ones shown in the game?
On each card, there were different resources, such as water, food, and money. On each card, there is a description on what the card would enforce or take away. For example, there was such a card that would induce a tax, which would give the government more money, but would make the public angry. This card in real life would be true. However, not all of the cards would be true, because there might be these few people who support the government and its decisions no matter what, so it is not all true.
3. How did you approach international negotiations? Was it better to lead by example, or attempt to encourage other nations by investing in their green economies
When looking at their approval bar, if it was somewhat near the middle, I would give money to up the bar a bit. If the bar was at a high level, I did nothing to that country. However, if the bar was significantly lower than the halfway mark, then I left that country alone, because I knew that I would have to spend much more money to get that country on my side. Also, I would look and see if their ideas matched with ours, because that way they could support us. If there was a country that had different ideas on their economy, I might not support them because they might not be willing to support my decision.
Water Footprint Calculator
1. Were you surprised by how much water you consumed?
I was surprised by how much water I consumed, because 850 m3 a year is a LOT of water. If you imagine that 7.5 billion people are consuming this much a year, that’s more than 6 trillion gallons of water a year!
2. How did your footprint compare to your country’s and world’s average?
My footprint is a lot less than my country’s average, because the world’s average is 1243 m3 per year, and mine is 850 m3 per year. My country’s average is 2842 m3 per year, which is also much larger than 850 m3 per year.
3. What parts of your footprint do you feel is possible to reduce? What parts don’t?
I feel it is possible to reduce the amount of water I consume. I can do this by taking shorter showers, conserving water while in the bathroom, not wasting water, and recycling water and give it to plants instead of wasting it. I don’t feel it is possible to reduce the amount of food I eat, because food is a necessary thing to survive, and decreasing it would be unhealthy towards my body, so I don’t think it is possible to reduce the amount of food I eat.
4. Do some research on a water-based conflict in your country. Which communities have access to water, which ones don’t, and who controls the resource use?
Even though the U.S. may seem like a developed countries, there are still some places that are in need of water. For example, according to Alex Vinci’s article on Global Citizen “Not everyone in the United States has running water”, over 6% of the people in Alaska are still suffering from lack of water. Not all people in Alaska have a plumbing system, so they need to go to specific places to get water. The average human uses up to 100 gallons a day. However, when it comes to the Alaskans, they use about 2 gallons a day. Populated places, such as San Francisco are more developed and have water sources more nearby, giving them plenty of water.
