Walking the Walk by Reducing our Footprint INTRO: To truly become environmentally educated one must take action to reduce the impact humans have on this planet. While changing the habits of billions of people is a rather challenging undertaking, we must nonetheless attempt to do what we can. As future leaders and citizens of this planet your behavior can set an example for the rest of the planet! This assignment will be our first few steps, and I hope this task will influence your journey, and the journey of those who share in your lives. The goal of this assignment is to measure the amount of energy and resources you and your household utilize in a given year by calculating the impact you are having on the planet. We will then come up with several ways to reduce our ecological footprints, set some goals, accomplish those goals and recalculate your footprint at the end of the semester. With determination and commitment your footprint will be lower and you will be making positive steps to protect the environment and safeguard resources for your children’s future! Step 1: Go and calculate your eco-footprint: https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/ecologicalfootprint/ Step 2: Read the page and when you get to the bottom click “calculate your footprint”. Step 3: Read the info and then click “Take the first step”. Step 4: Login with Facebook or as guest (in which case you need to put in an email). Step 5: Answer the questions and use the “Add Details to Improve Accuracy” feature Step 6: To answer one of the questions, about 30% of California’s energy is coming from renewables as of 2018 with a goal of 33% by 2020 and 50% by 2030 Step 7: Take the whole quiz and click “See Details” Step 8: Take a screenshot of your results (usually “Function + Print Screen” for PC or “Command+Shift +3” for Mac). Step 9: Answer the following questions Step 10: Save this document and then submit it in the ‘assignments’ folder on Canvas. Save a copy for yourself because you will need to revisit your answers at the end of the semester. *On your footprint you may hover over the orange “i”s to get information about terms. A. In your OWN WORDS, what is the definition of a personal ecological footprint? A good way to think about this, is to imagine being stranded on an island. How big does your island have to be in order to provide enough food, water, shelter, and the capacity to renew your waste, soil, and air. A person who wastes resources needs a bigger island to stay alive, an efficient person requires a smaller island. A person who eats meat needs a bigger island than a vegetarian, so does a person who has a car instead of a bicycle. So if everyone lived your lifestyle, how many Earths (islands) do we need? Remember, we only ACTUALLY have ONE. How many planets are necessary if everyone lived like you? When is your personal Earth Overshoot Day? This is the date when, in any given year, the planet would run out of resources if everyone lived like you, Planets What is your Ecological Footprint? (How many global hectares does it take to support your lifestyle)? A global hectare is the amount of land you require for your lifestyle. We can break it into categories so you can see which categories of your life have the greatest impact. A professional soccer field is about 1 hectare. How does your ecological footprint break down? Using the RESULTS of your Eco-footprint, answer the following questions. By LAND TYPE, which was your largest category? By CONSUMPTION CATEGORY please RANK each of your results in Global Hectares. To see the results you have to hold your pointer over each of the pillars on the graph. CATEGORY FOOD SHELTER MOBILITY GOODS SERVICES What was your SECOND LARGEST Consumption Category? Can you explain why? (If it is the same as LAND TYPE then choose a different category). For example, if GOODS is your largest you might say, it is because I shop a lot and make a lot of trash. What is your CARBON FOOTPRINT? How many Tons of CO2 do you produce per year? Click on “Explore the Solutions” and/or go to the following websites: https://zerowastehome.com/tips/ http://www.globalstewards.org/reduce-carbon-footprint.htm https://inhabitat.com/350-org-shares-helpful-environmental-action-tips-for-concerned-citizens/ *Don’t forget to check out links and other websites F: Make a list of “Sustainability Goals”. Choose at least 15 things you can do to reduce your footprint and live more sustainably. Please list them in categories. For example: Category Action 1 ENERGY Purchase energy saving light bulbs 2 Turn off my TV, lights, & computer when not in use 3 WASTE: Start worm composting 4 FOOD Bring my own bags to the grocery store, etc., etc. 5. TRANSPORTATION Carpool/ bus/ BART/ etc. 6. RESOURCES Use less water 7. GET POLITICAL Join Sierra Club Category Action *Save a copy of your results. You can take a screen shot and save it as a picture by using the print screen function and then pasting that into a document. At the end of the semester you will retake the quiz and compare these results so be sure you can find it again.
