Ecological Footprint Calculators
The idea behind calculating an ecological footprint is to understand your own impact on the planet, and to begin to think about
how you might make choices to have less impact on the Earth. An ecological footprint is a measure of the demands that each
human puts on the Earth's ecosystems. The Earth's capacity to provide goods and services depends largely on the amount of
biologically productive land and sea area needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to absorb and
render harmless the corresponding waste. Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth (or how many
planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody lived a given lifestyle. For 2005, humanity's total ecological
footprint was estimated at 1.3 planet Earths - in other words, humanity uses ecological services 1.3 times as fast as Earth can
renew them.
While the term ecological footprint is widely used, there are many methods to calculate an individual’s footprint, and a number
of Ecological Footprint Calculators been developed over the last several years. One of the best that I have found, was developed
in Australia by it’s own EPA and two non-governmental organizations: Global Footprint Network and World Wildlife Fund.
This particular set of calculators is designed to help people calculate their own environmental impacts. These calculators help
you to compare the impacts that different activities or everyday decisions might have, whether they take place in your home, in
your school or office, or in transportation among these activities. There are different calculators for different activities: home,
office, school, retail or event. But for our purposes, we can start with the personal calculator.
Although this calculator was developed for Australia, it is not completely applicable to the U. S., but it is a reasonable
approximation, since we have similar standards of living and economies.
Assignment:
Go to: http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/ecologicalfootprint/calculators/default.asp
Choose: the Personal Calculator (this will take you to a page that gives you two choices)
Click here to calculate your personal Ecological Footprint. (requires Flash).
Estimated completion time: 15 mins
Click to calculate your personal Ecological Footprint (doesn't require Flash).
Estimated completion time: 10 mins
(You can also choose: Click here to learn more about your Ecological Footprint and how to lighten your impact on the
planet.)
Hopefully you have Flash on your computer, and you can choose the first one.
Follow the instructions to complete you footprint. Save this result and print it out. (It should appear as below)
Next, make some modifications to your lifestyle to see how much you can reduce your footprint.
When you have done the best you can, print out this second footprint.