Reference no: EM132462967

Findings of the Ecological Footprint:

Discussion 1. The finding that applied to my particular situation surprised me. I truly believed that my answers to the the questions on the public transportation and carpooling would have put me well above the U.S. average for 8.1. The fact that I have a energy efficient home and have made improvements to increase its efficiency helped my score. The supply LED light builds have utilize as well as the recycling efforts I have made in the past year seem to off set, to a degree the fact of my daily commute. Another factor that I did not consider would move the needle in my favor , but did was eating unprocessed meats(love deer conservation) and locally grown foods aid in reducing my footprint.

Discussion 2. The most significant driver behind my degree and certifications is to one day build something away from everyone that is 100% clean energy where I will grow/kill everything I eat. On this note, the one thing that keeps my footprint high, will be a significant pain when I go off the grid, and happens to be part of our forum talking points, is processed/packaged food. Getting around this will be extremely tough. I do not have the time, energy, or interest in making my own beer, growing my own weed, or slicing/frying the potato chips I subsequently devour thereafter the other two mentioned.

Discussion 3. The questions that surprised me the most were the locally grown food, carpooling, and public transportation questions, until I sat back and actually thought about it. Immediately I realized that yes I try to eat healthy, but if I was to eat healthy and local, my footprint would be smaller. After this assignment my best friend and I have decided to not only shop at our local Farmers Markets, but bring items to sell as well. The carpooling and public transportation questions were odd to me because where I live there are not many public transportation options and carpooling to work when you live in the middle of nowhere is pretty impossible. If I was able to do either of those two it would 100% lower my footprint.

Discussion 4. When I retook the assessment one thing that stood out for me is just how drastically numbers changed when I dropped the amount of meat that I eat per week. I was at a 5.5 the first time through, and after those changes, my gha dropped to 4.2. Of course, in a way, this makes sense due to everything that goes into the production of meat. However, I still found it to be shocking. It also makes me feel just a tad guilty because I've been an avid meat and dairy consumer my entire life. Now knowing the impact that it has I'm greatly considering looking into alternatives.

Discussion 5. I was surprised that my Ecological footprint (EFP) number was 11.4. I anticipated it being much lower as I thought I did a pretty decent job as making environmentally sound choices. The main contributors to my high number were vehicle I drive, and the number of hours I fly (160 annually). If I purchased a Tesla, stopped flying, and landed a desk job, my EFP name would be reduced down to 3.6.

Discussion 6. During findings of my ecological footprint, I found that I consume way more than I should on a daily basis. Learning that I need 9.8 GHA helped me to realize what needs to be done in order to facilitate a smaller footprint. This assignment opened my eyes and I have never thought about the impact I personally have towards the environment and its cause and effect. Questions that I have never thought about such as "how much packaged or processed food do you consume" is important in someones life because you begin to realize the process in which you are involved to taking up space and materials and the impact of your single being. I believe that we should use more animal based products and non-packaged locally grown or self grown products that way we use less materials that cause damage to the environment for example plastic and trash. I think this is huge to the environment and agriculture because you are demanding less goods to be used. I think that the environmental footprint website asked the right questions that are prominent. I believe that in order to get a very accurate calculation you should keep track of your usage which is tedious but can be very beneficial. I feel as if we as humans living on this earth don't look into the well being of our environment enough, and if we did we would take more of these issues into consideration. Do you guys agree with this idea that we should take more time to consider the facts or being what I call environmental healthy?!

Discussion 7. When I took the quiz that determined my ecological footprint, I wasn't surprised by the results because despite not currently living in the United States, my lifestyle is almost the same as it was in there. It was discovered that if everyone lived the way I do, we would need 4.8 Earths to sustain the entire global population. I found this to be alarming, and it showed that I need to make some changes in my way of living. My footprint per capita was 8.1 which happens to be the same as the average footprint per capita for the United States. My footprint per capita went down by 58% after I made changes that included; reducing how far I traveled by car, increased the energy efficiency of my home, and reduced the number of hours I spend flying.