Monday, October 4, 2010

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

One of the first quizzes that I took was about air pollution.  What my travel habits are doing to the environment.  I calculated my travel miles: home to school, school to work, work to home.  Calculated the total miles along with what kind of car, gas price, and type of gas gave me my results.  They showed that I'm actually not doing too bad!  They recommend though that I try to car pool, rather than driving alone & try walking/biking the smaller distances if I can.
I also took the ecological footprint quiz...this time my results weren't as good.  I'm doing very bad.  With all the extra services that our communities and businesses provide it's hard to balance out the ones that are unnecessary.  If I were to use less of my time traveling those small distances or trips and recycle more I would have much less to feel guilty about and take up less space on this planet.
When I looked over the last quiz, Carbon Footprints of our Nation.  We're also not doing so good as a whole.  We here in the United States are all about the services, manufactured goods, and the mobility to get there.  We are using up the most resources and doing nothing to replace them.  We are too caught up in the next big thing that is happening.  What happened to taking time to enjoy the place we live in.  Taking the time to enjoy what was created for us...not what is being taken over by our own creations...

4 comments:

  1. I agree with what you're saying about getting too caught up in the next big thing. We need to take time and be happy with what's going on now, it's like no one is ever satisfied.

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  2. I think this is a very insightful post. You show that some things you do well, and some not so much. This is like most people. We try to do some things to help the environment, but often it is not enough. And you are so right, we are taking over this planet. And in the end, there might not be anything left.

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  3. The quizzes were much more insightful that I was ever expecting. It sounds like they impacted you similarly. I never really expected that what I was doing to the earth was so bad until the quizzes really outlined it for me. I think that if people just knew that would really make a difference. I honestly think that that's part of the problem, people always think that it's big factories or whatever it may be doing all the damage and they never stop and see how they themselves are contributing to the problem.

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  4. Sounds like your doing a lot more than be to help prevent air pollution! I have to drive back and forth to school every day, and work most days out of the week as well... but i can't help but drive! Nothing is really walking distance, at least with the amount of time I usually have to get there. I would LOVE to bike and walk more if it were more realistic. Good for you though, it is up to our generation to really find ways to make a change to better our earth. The time is NOW!

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