Blogs
United States: 1b Interactive Simulations
1. Ecological Footprint Calculator -Link
Q1: What part of your ecological footprint most surprised you?
A1: I was most surprised by the fact that if everyone lived like me, we would need about 4 planet earths to provide enough resources.
Q2: How did your footprint compare to your city’s average (if available) and your country’s average?
A2: My footprint is more eco-friendly than my city’s average (San Francisco). Although my footprint is more eco-friendly than my city’s average, it is about the same as my country’s average.
Q3: 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?
A3: The location I found was Los Angeles. Los Angeles is different in the way that they have a “Native Tree Ordinance” which protects all California Bay, Western Sycamore, Southern California Black Walnut, and Oak trees from harm. Something to learn from this is that protecting trees is worthwhile.
Q4: What parts of your footprint do you feel is possible to reduce? What parts don’t?
A4: Many parts of my footprint feel impossible to reduce, yet many feel quite possible. One example is that I feel like it is possible to reduce the amount of meat I eat, but I’m not sure if I can reduce how far I travel by car each week. I think that it is possible for me to reduce the amount of meat I eat which I think would help to reduce my footprint. However, I’m not sure I can reduce how far I travel by car each week because of the following. Since I live where there are no buses and it’s too far to bike to school, I have to ride in a car to and from school. Also, I play soccer and run with a track team outside of school. Doing these after school activities requires a lot of driving to and from practices. Although I travel many places by car, I do carpool sometimes. Carpooling is something I can do more often and although it won’t reduce how much I travel in a car per week, it will keep the environment healthier. Overall, I don’t feel like I can reduce how far I travel by car, but I can carpool more often which would help reduce my footprint.
Q5: Read this article about large companies, individual actions, and climate change: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/just-90-companies-are-blame-most-climate-change-carbon-accountant-says. What do you think are the limits and possibilities in affecting climate change by the reduction of individual footprints?
Q5: I think that if all individual footprints were reduced, climate change would be reduced a lot-it might even become history. A possibility of how climate change would be affected if individual footprints were reduced is that it might be reduced so much some would call the problem solved. What I mean by this is that climate change would no longer be a major problem and would not need attention anymore. The limits/problems one may encounter is that they may find they can only reduce their footprint by a certain amount. If only a couple people were to reduce their footprints, we would be closer, but climate change would still be a problem. This is why we need everyone to pitch in and help try to reduce their individual footprints.
2. Climate Challenge - Link
Q1: What strategy did you take in Climate Challenge? Was it effective in reducing emissions?
A1: I tried to make sure the bars showing all my resources were either green or only a little red as well as making sure that the CO2 bar was green at the end of each turn. Also, when I was choosing my cards, I made sure that I checked the popularity measure and found a good balance so I would be liked and not voted out of office. What I mean by this is that if I chose an unpopular card, I would also choose a popular card to make sure my popularity wouldn’t drop significantly. I made sure to not have all my cards be unpopular, but I also didn’t choose all super popular cards. The reason I didn’t choose all of my cards to be very popular is that the first time I tried the game and played this way, there very little popular cards at the end and I ended up getting voted out of office. All in all, I made sure the sections for carbon dioxide, food, water, energy, and the section for my money were always green or only a little red. I also made sure that my popularity was high and never dropped much. This way, I could stay steady throughout the game instead of performing well in the beginning then poorly in the end or vice versa. I think this strategy worked out well and was effective in many different things, including reducing emissions.
Q2: 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?
A2: I think the strategy cards represented resources well for the most part. I don’t remember all of the cards and how resources were represented on all the cards, but of the ones I remember, I believe they were mostly accurate. I also think that most of the strategies/policies would have a similar impact in real life to what the game suggested.
Q3: 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?
A3: I did my best to always have my carbon emission bar green when I approached international negotiations. This meant that I was leading by example. I led by example instead of investing in their green economies because I found that when I spent money to give support to other countries, it was not guaranteed that they would decide to reduce their carbon emissions. However, I found that when I led by example, they were more likely to vote to reduce carbon emissions.
