An ecological footprint can be regarded as the amount of strain exerted by an individual on the environment. In general, the environment has a certain level that it can sustain living things through the regeneration of its resources. If at any instance the load exceeds the environment 's carrying capacity, then there will be an offshoot which can cause an environmental collapse. For this reason, there are measures that can be taken to reduce this offload such as growing the carrying capacity.
Naturally, I consider myself as being more of a vegetarian rather than omnivorous. Based on my eating habits and the distances I cover handling my daily activities, I found that my ecological footprint is fairly high. Most of the foods I consume are vegetables
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For instance, I should start consuming organic foods and increase the consumption of pre-made foods and shop at the local farmers market. This is because these foods have not travelled long before reaching me. Besides, I should increase my recycling which is one of the things that I rarely do. Furthermore, I should start using energy efficient appliances in my home.
If everyone on the planet consumed the resources at the rate that I am, then we would need 4.1 earths to sustain the whole population. Personally, I tend not to recycle often because I because I have a preference to new and unused products. Again, I shop far from my local market which means the products I buy have to take a long way to reach me which increases the economic footprint. If we continue consuming the resources at this rate we will soon lack the resources for survival hence with time the whole population will be wiped
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If for instance, I increase my consumption level, the ecological footprint increases. The main reason for this is that the environment has a fixed size and a number of resources that are the same so if I consume them faster or in high amounts, then it is likely that they will be depleted within a short time. Therefore, it is important that the relationship between changes in my consumption levels and my footprint be understood to help keep the footprint low.
My two most significant categories of my ecological footprint are the food as well as the use of plastic products. On the food category, I believe it is significant because of the way I rarely consume organic foods or even shop at the local markets. On the other hand, I like using plastic products because I see them as being compact and can be handled easily. Driven by me being a shopper who is price-oriented, I tend to buy products that I believe are of the best quality no matter where they are which in turn increases the
Sustainable living to reduce your personal footprint (n.d.). In WWF Global. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from
These solutions include recycle and reuse, walk or use public transportation turn off your electronics when you are not using them, eat less meat and to
You can 't make people reduce their consumption overall because they won 't do it, but you can give them a way to “give back ” so to say, by recycling. Another point Handley makes in this article is that paper sludge is just disgusting, so what, why does that matter? If it 's not appealing to the eye we just don 't recycle. This is for the environment it will better the environment and will make for a better
One starting point to reducing the amount of greenhouse gases that you release is to find your carbon footprint. The carbon
Most of the necessities humans need are provided in supermarkets, in fact supermarkets have become a necessity for our everyday life. They are now the main source of water, food, clothes and everyday tools. Therefore, the plastic bags demanded and supplied in this industry increase every day. In the past decade, we produced as much plastic as we did in the whole twentieth century (Freinkel, 2011). This exponential increase of a non-biodegradable material has negatively impacted our environment immensely. Plastic production requires our dwindling fossil fuel resources, robs away animal lives, litters our beautiful landscapes and even affects our very own well-being. Hence, if plastic production doesn’t diminish immediately, we will suffer great
Have you ever stopped to take a look at your surrounding environment and see lots of grass and open space? Or maybe you live in an industrial city and see smog and lots of factories and buildings being built. Do you ever stop and consider the pollution in your environment and how you could be contributing to it. Today people seem to be much more concerned about their natural environment and have taken various steps to try and reduce their carbon footprints. Examples of this are that many of us choose to buy a more fuel efficient vehicle to drive back and forth to work every day or that more people today take the time to separate recyclables from actual trash. Even the government who usually only seems to want our money has
In addition, I need to reduce the amount of animal-products I current eat and replace it by meat-free meals. “If every person living in Ontario reduced the amount of animal-products that he/she eats by half, we would reduce our Footprint by 5,600 global hectares. That is equivalent to 7,843 soccer fields” (Global Footprint Network , n.d, para 5, footprint calculator section).
One should be mindful, not wasteful, and attempt to purchase and eat as little as necessary. Cutting back unnecessary food intake overall will help reduce an ecological footprint in itself.
... reduce natural gas consumption. Long-term I am committed to installing new energy efficient windows to truly reduce energy consumption. To help reduce the family’s water consumption we recently installed an energy efficient washing machine that uses over 60% less water than the previous model that was installed. As an additional means in which to help conserve water I will be installing a rain barrel in the summer to water our outdoor plants. While these actions might not seem significant, they can make a significant difference. According to Energy Star, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, if every home in America replaced just one incandescent light bulb with an Energy Star qualified CFL, in just one year it would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes. That would prevent the release of greenhouse gas emissions equal to that of about 800,000 cars.
Using plastic bags are second nature to people in this day and age. Warner acknowledges, “Much to the dismay of the environmentally conscious citizens worldwide, the ubiquity of the free plastic carryout bag has bred nonchalant consumers who take this modern convenience for granted” (646). Although some people are conscious about the environment, people strive more for convenience and do not think about the impacts using bags have not only on the environment, but on themselves as well. If something is bad for the environment, it will alternatively be bad for humans as well. When plastic bags are exposed to the sun from being littered all around, the ultraviolet rays cause the substances of plastic bags to weaken. After the substances weaken, the substances become invisible to the naked eye. The substances that are no longer able to be seen are toxic to humans (Warner 649). As a result of plastic bags being littered around, animals consume plastic bags. This is negatively affects humans because animals are often consumed. When humans consume animals like, fish, there can be plastic in the fish’s belly, which then transfers to the humans and this poses a concern for human’s health. Humans are negatively affected by plastic bags because of the toxic chemicals in plastic bags, as well as, consuming animals with plastic in their
Everyone has heard a cashier one time or another mumble, “Paper or plastic?” as he put their groceries in a bag, but do shoppers know the effects of each vessel in which they carry their comestibles? There are many issues and benefits to both paper and plastic. The making and recycling of both paper and plastic bags can harm the environment. One must also look at the costs of making each bag. The convenience of each is also something to look at. Many people jump to conclusion that paper bags are better for the environment without knowing the facts. Since plastic bags are preferred by customers and plastic bags actually do not hurt the environment as much as paper ones do, consumers should feel at ease when choosing plastic.
Every day the world around us is changing ever so slightly in many different ways. Humans can affect the environment through our day to day lifestyle without even noticing the change. An ecological footprint is a measurement of how much a person uses the environment around them to live their life. This given measurement can help one to see their impact on the earth. It is an important tool to understand what actually a human does to change the habitat near them. My ecological footprint results gave me a perspective of how my daily life can impact the world I live in, as well as, how I as an individual can change my actions to make less waste on earth. It is also useful for each person to know their own ecological footprint since no one live
Though several people see large rapidly growing populations in developing regions as the primary culprit in environmental decline, we need to focus on the costly environmental outcomes of overconsumption among the gradually increasing populations of the developed nations. These differing emphases naturally point to fundamentally different solutions: slow population increase in less-developed nations or change destructive consumption and production patterns in the more-developed nations. This debate, however, assumes a one-step answer to the complex problems created by population pressures on the environment. Both population size and consumption ...
The environment today is not in a good condition, Climate change is evident, and oceans are getting polluted. Rainforrest's are decreasing in size due to deforestation and illegal logging. Animals are getting extinct due to the destruction of their habitats. Natural resources are being consumed at very large amounts, and get wasted. There are different ways these problems can be addressed, one option is environmental management. Environmental management focuses on conservation of natural resources, protection of habitats, and impact of humans on the environment. Conservation of natural resources is the smart use of the world's resources by humans, through this waste production is limited, and there will be less garbage in the world. By conserving
Compared to national averages, my current carbon footprint is quite large. In fact, based on the data from 2014, it is 15.8 metric tons more than the national average(Europa). When the scope is widened to include the whole world, my current emissions seem even worse. The world average is 4.936, which is significantly less than my 32.30 metric tons of emissions (Europa). However, if I adjust my habits and lifestyle as I hope to in the next five years, my emissions will be below the national average and only slightly above the world