Ecological Footprint

What would the world look like if everyone lived like me?

That's the question that's proposed with the ecological footprint game, a game that is pretty interesting to try out. It basically calculates your ecological footprint on this planet based on how you live your everyday life. It takes into account your transportation, eating, shopping habits, etc, to figure out how many planet Earths we would need in order to sustain the human population if everyone lived liked you. I took the test and was shocked to learn that it would take 4.6 Earths to sustain my lifestyle. I never really considered myself as having that devastating of an impact on this environment. I think that perhaps my lifestyle is a bit lazy. I don't like carpooling, I prefer driving alone. I like being able to go where ever I want to and be able to leave whenever without having to compromise because I'm traveling with someone else.
Although I'm sure this can cause a lot of traffic and emission.














(Photo courtesy of http://tucowsinc.com/news/2007/06/tucows-goes-to-the-traffic-conference/)

I'm also pretty bad with leaving lights on in the house and things plugged in.
There are times when I will unplug appliances and tvs when I know that I will be away from my house for a long time. However I still leave my phone charger in the wall whenever I leave my house just out of habit and laziness. I think my lifestyle isn't that bad for the environment. I don't litter and I don't really waste water or electricity that much. I will turn a light off if I leave a room. I think part of my reason is that my electricity bill isn't that high and since I don't see the effects of wasting electricity here or there in my bills each month, I don't think there's much to be made if I change my habits. I'm not willing to change my driving habits because I do live far

(photo courtesy of http://www.gearfuse.com/driin-mobile-phone-holder-shackles-cables-from-causing-chaos/)

away from the places I need to be at every day, whether it's work or school and I just feel that carpooling doesn't apply for everyone. In terms of food, I feel that I shouldn't have to change my lifestyle unless it affects my health directly. Fortunately I don't need to change my shopping habits since I don't even shop at all anyways. I also won't change my household since it's my house and where I want to live and I feel that no one should have to live uncomfortably if they don't want to, strictly from a size perspective. I will however, take steps to recycle more and stop creating as much waste since I do agree that I throw away too many garbage bags each week when the trash comes. I will begin to take steps in separating out paper, plastic and aluminum each week.



















(Photo courtesy of http://eltterengganu.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/save-our-world-be-the-protector/)