Assignment 1: The Ecological Footprint

Individual Assignment

Determining your individual Ecological Footprint will help begin to analyze and determine what personal steps you can take to live greener.

Part 1

Go to http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/personal_footprint/ and take the Ecological Footprint Quiz (it may be helpful to take notes about your impacts as you progress through the Quiz)

After completing the Quiz, you should save the results. Them retake the Quiz and change the parameters to reflect different resource usage levels. You may answer the questions using you current lifestyle and living conditions if you live on campus, or you may choose to answer as if you were living at home.

Part 2

Write a report in 750 to 1000 words answering the following questions:

1. What is an Ecological Footprint?
2. What were the results of your test and what, if anything, did you find surprising or noteworthy?
3. What changes can you make in your life to reduce your Ecological Footprint?
4. If everyone lived like you do, how many earths would be needed to sustain the population, and what does that mean? (Why can't we continue consuming resources at the current rate? What would happen if nothing were done?)
5. What changes would you suggest to others to reduce their Footprint?
6. What is the relationship between changes in your consumption level and your Footprint? (What happens to your Footprint as your consumption level changes?) Why is this significant?
7. What are the two most significant categories of your Ecological Footprint and why?
8. What adjustment would you make to these two categories to significantly reduce their environmental impact?
9. What have you learned from working through this process?