United States: 1b. Interactive Simulations

Oct 3, 2017 by haydenboone

1. Ecological Footprint Calculator

1. What part of your ecological footprint most surprised you?

The part that most surprised me was how much of an impact meat eating had on your footprint. I experimented with the test and found out that if I were to go vegan, I would save 1.8 earths.

1. How did your footprint compare to your city’s average and your country’s average?

My footprint is uses 1.3868 gha more than San Francisco’s average and 1.88 gha more than the average american.

1. What parts of your footprint do you feel is possible to reduce? What parts don’t?

I feel it’s possible to reduce how much I drive, because school is close enough to bike to, and a couple of my friends live close enough to me that I can carpool. I also feel like it’s possible to reduce the amount of electricity I use by being more careful about turning off the lights, unplugging device chargers when not used, and thinking about whether or not I even need to use the lights at the current time. I don’t feel like I can reduce how often I eat animal-based products because they’re a great source of protein, and it’s a lot harder to find a sustainable amount of protein in vegetables. Another thing I can’t improve on is how often I travel using public transportation, because I live in an area where there are no bus stops.

2. Climate Challenge

1. What strategy did you take in Climate Challenge? In the climate challenge, my strategy was to get a high approval from the people while still being eco-friendly. My main goal was to find anything that would help reduce CO2 emissions. Was it effective in reducing emissions? It wasn’t extremely effective, but it definitely made a difference.
2. What did you think of how the strategy cards represented resources? I think the strategy cards represented resources accurately, and it was easy to tell whether or not you would profit in that resource, and by how much. Do you think some of the strategies/policies would have different impacts than the ones shown in the game? I don’t think so. I think that everything was pretty accurate.
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? I think it was better to do a little bit of both, because then you can take from both benefits and it’s more likely that more countries will set targets.

3. Water Footprint Calculator

1. Where were you surprised by how much water you consumed? I was surprised that just the meat I eat makes up nearly half of my water footprint!
2. How did your footprint compare to your country’s and the world's average? (You will need to research this.) My water footprint is roughly a third of my country’s average, and globally is not quite as big of a difference as me to my country’s average, but still about 400 m3 less than the global average.
3. What parts of your footprint do you feel is possible to reduce? What parts don’t? I think I may be able to reduce how much meat I eat by a very small amount. I will try to eat a vegetarian meal at least once a week. I don’t feel like I can change things like vegetables, fruit, and dairy, because that’s how people get their vitamins and a little bit of protein too. We can’t live without those things.

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