An ecological footprint is a calculation of the pressure humans place on the planet and illustrates how many planets would be needed to support different lifestyles. This Friday in class we discussed the concept of ecological footprints and then did an activity to determine what our own ecological footprint is, along with how to make it lower so that we would be living a more sustainable lifestyle. During the reflection part of this assignment, a question was posed about the “fairness” of world land use. According to the worksheet, the U.S. has an ecological footprint of 23.7 acres per person while the 35 low-income countries average 2 global acres per person. Should there be laws governing how large a country’s or individuals ecological footprint is? I believe that it is a good idea to try and limit a large country, such as the United State’s, ecological footprint because that country will have a greater impact on the Earth because of a larger population. To do this, I think that there needs to be limitations put on the country as a whole, trying to promote the use of local goods and cleaner transportation; however, in my opinion there is no way to make laws against the individual because there would be no way to enforce a lifestyle on all of the people of a large nation. For the United States, if there were laws governing how large an individual’s ecological footprint was allowed to be, there would go against some of the basic principles of our nation – our people are free, and shouldn’t be forced to live particular lifestyles, even though it would benefit not only the United States but the world as well. In addition, I just don’t think that there is a realistic way to enforce individuals’ ecological footprints because it is largely an abstract concept. I think it would take too much of the nation’s money (which is already lacking, might I add) to monitor each of the 315 million people’s footprints that are living in the United States. I think that the best way to convince people to reduce their ecological footprint is simply by explanation and exposure. As for myself, until reading the “Dire Predictions” text and taking the ecological footprint survey, I didn’t even know what an ecological footprint was – I had only heard of the carbon footprint, and these are two entirely different concepts. If more people simply knew about the ecological footprint and its implications that we are not living a sustainable lifestyle, I think people would be more likely to alter their lifestyles, even if it is just a little bit. Also, I believe that if respected public figures were to illustrate reports and the problems facing the Earth because of our current ecological footprints, then the general public would be more likely to respond. For me, after doing this activity I am definitely going to try and change part of my lifestyle in order to reduce my own ecological footprint, and urge others to do the same so that the Earth Overshoot Day will be delayed.
So, take your own ecological footprint survey! http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/personal_footprint/
So, take your own ecological footprint survey! http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/personal_footprint/