Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

The first quiz I took was an Ecological Footprint Quiz. Apparently, we would need 3.8 Earths if everyone lived like me! I was quite shocked by this result and it made me genuinely upset. The result said it takes 16.8 global acres of the Earth's productive area to support my lifestyle. I rarely eat meat, I try to recycle everything, and I purposely left my car with my parents this semester and these things seemed to be giving me an advantage while taking the quiz. Obviously, I was way wrong! Here is the breakdown of my footprint: services 46%, food 22%, shelter 12%, mobility 5%, and goods 15%. I was unsure of what fell into the "services" category, but then found out it is societal things such as health care, entertainment, restaurants, the military, real estate, legal services, and the government. These are things that are automatically allotted to my footprint because they are national services. This really opened my eyes to the many factors affecting my footprint!

The second quiz I took was called Score Your Diet. I scored a 115, and the scoring scale said an excellent score was 60+. This made me feel much better after taking the first quiz. :) I noticed, however, that this one didn't discern between locally grown and transported food, so that helped my score. I eat a lot of dairy products, but barely any meat so that kept my Animal Welfare and Environmental scores down. I make a daily effort to eat a healthy diet, and this quiz reassured me that I am on the right track, although there is always room for improvement!

My third quiz was a Carbon Footprint Quiz. According to this quiz, if everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle, we would need 4.03 Earths! Once again, so very disappointing! My Carbon Footprint was 49.5 compared to the national average of 91.4. My Food Footprint and Goods and Services Footprint were also lower than the national average, but my Housing Footprint was higher.

These quizzes were a great learning experience! What sorts of changes can I make in my life to lessen my carbon footprint? The answer is... many! First of all, multiple improvements could be made in my house. These generally involve things such as electricity and heating options that I currently have limited control over because I am in rental house. I know this is no excuse, however, and there are changes I can still make. Investing in energy efficient appliances would be a good start - our washer and dryer are so old they just make me cringe every time I use them. Also, my housemates have multiple video game systems that don't get turned off when they're not being used, running our electricity bill quite high. Some other factors that deal specifically with my own habits would be easier to adjust. For example, I can eat more foods that are locally grown, organic, and in-season. Frequenting farmer's markets should be a must, and planting a garden would be very beneficial. I could also put more thought into the products I buy, by purchasing more recycled products and cleaning products that are biodegradable.