An Ecological Footprint - Rachel V Salyer's Blog



An Ecological Footprint

An Activity for Students and Parents

Part 1: What is Your Ecological Footprint?

Purpose: For students and parents to see how their choices in life affect the world environment.

Materials: Access to the internet and this handout.

Procedure:

1) Read the information pertaining to your ecological footprint at the address:

2) Complete the attached survey. It will take some time to complete and you may have to do a little digging to get your answers. There are 20 questions.

3) Take the Ecological Footprint and the Carbon Footprint quiz on the websites listed below.

a. Ecological Footprint

i. registry/ecology/res_bestfoot.html

b. Carbon Footprint

i.

4) Try to print the final page if possible.

a. If you can’t print the last page, make sure you record how many hectares or acres (depending on the unit used for the quiz you chose) you use and how many planet Earths would be used if everyone was like you.

Answer the following questions.

Results:

1) How many hectares/acres did you use?

2) How many planet Earths would we need if everyone on earth is like you?

3) What information that you put into the calculation made you reconsider your resource usage?

Conclusion:

1) What is a hectare? (you may need to “google” this)

2) Should you worry about how your footprint influences the Earth? Explain your answer.

3) What are some of the things you and your family can do to reduce your Ecological Footprint? Look at the survey from Part 1 and make a list of changes you can make.

An Ecological Footprint Survey

Part 1

Please complete the survey as a family before getting online to take one of the three online quizzes regarding how much of earth’s area you and your family use. The amount of land that you use is based on a mathematical model that is only as accurate as the information you provide. There are other factors that may change your actual amount used but is not taken into consideration in these surveys. Not all questions will be used for all three websites.

Diet Habits

1) How often does your diet include meat?

a. Never

b. Infrequently (a few times per week)

c. Occasionally (once a day)

d. Frequently (at least traces in every meal)

e. A large part of every meal.

2) How many kilo-calories (kcal) do you consume everyday? A 2800 kcal diet is approximately equivalent to:  * eating cereal, toast, juice, and coffee for breakfast, * a sandwich, yogurt, fruit, and a beverage for lunch, * an afternoon snack, and * a dinner with main course, side, and beverage, and a snack or dessert in the evening. 

a. Much less than average (2400 or less kcal per day)

b. Somewhat less than average (2400 to 2800 kcal per day)

c. Average (2800 – 3200 kcal per day)

d. Somewhat more than average (3200 – 3600 kcal per day)

e. Much more than average (3600 or more kcal per day)

3) How much of your purchased food is thrown out rather than eaten? We all of have good intentions of saving left-over food for eating later, but how much of this do we throw away?

a. None

b. About 5 percent is wasted

c. About 10 percent is wasted

d. About 1/4 (25 percent) is wasted

e. About 1/3 (33 percent) is wasted

f. About 1/2 (50 percent) is wasted

4) How much of the food that you buy is locally grown, unprocessed, and in-season? Processed food includes canned, jarred and frozen sauces, vegetables, meets. Locally is considered within 200 miles. In Oldham County, we have a number of fruits, vegetables, and dairy and meat products grown locally.

a. None

b. About a 1/4

c. About 1/2

d. About 3/4

e. Most food purchases are locally grown, unprocessed, and in-season

Transportation

5) How much do you drive each year, on average?

a. 15,000 miles or more/year

b. 12,000 – 15,000 miles/year

c. 9,000 – 12,000 miles/year

d. 8,000 – 9,000 miles/year

e. 5,000 – 8,000 miles/year

f. 2,000 – 5,000 miles/year

g. 2,000 or less miles/year

6) On average, how often do you drive with someone else (either in your car or theirs)?

a. Almost never

b. About 10% of the time

c. About 25% of the time

d. About 50% of the time

e. About 75% of the time

f. Almost all of the time

7) How many miles per gallon does your car get?

a. More than 50 miles per gallon

b. 35 – 50 miles per gallon

c. 25 – 35 miles per gallon

d. 15 – 25 miles per gallon

e. fewer than 15 miles per gallon

8) On average, how many miles do you travel on public transportation (bus, rail, subway) each week?

a. More than 200 miles per week

b. 100 – 200 miles per week

c. 25 – 100 miles per week

d. 15 – 25 miles per week

e. fewer than 15 miles per week

Travel

9) On holidays do you usually travel

a. Close to home or stay at home

b. A short distance away

c. A long flight away

10) How many hours/trips do you fly on an airplane in a year? Hint: one coast-to-coast roundtrip is approximately 10 hours; a flight from Chicago to either coast roundtrip is approximately 5 hours.

a. 400 hours/year

b. 100 hours/year

c. 50 hours/year

d. 25 hours/year

e. 10 hours/year

f. 5 hours/year

g. 2 hours/year

h. fewer than 2 hours/year

i. never fly

Housing

11) How many people live in your house? ____

12) How many square feet does your house have? ____

a. Square Feet: measure the approximate width and length of the inside of the house and multiple the two numbers. If you have two floors, double the amount.

13) What type of house do you live in?

a. Apartment

b. Free standing house, no adjoining walls.

c. Row house (2+ units with adjoining walls)

d. Green-design house

14) Does your house use “green” electricity? You have to choose this option with your power company and it usually cost more. Yes or No?

15) Do you use energy efficient appliances and light bulbs?

a. Always

b. Most of the time

c. Half of the time

d. Some of the time

e. Never

Household Waste

16) Do you recycle? Yes or No?

17) How much waste do you generate? In other words, how much trash goes to the landfill?

a. Less than average

b. Average

c. More than average

Other Questions

18) Age

19) Size of city/town you live in. Oldham County population is about 55,000.

20) How much productive land should be set aside for saving species? Productive land would include land used for growing food, housing, and industry.

a. 0%

b. 12%

c. 25%

d. 40%

An Ecological Footprint

An Activity for Students and Parents

Part 2: Can You Change Your Ecological Footprint?

The Question: Can you reduce your Ecological Footprint by 5%, 10%, 25% or more? What steps can you take to reduce your ecological Footprint? Let’s look at several things that you can do that might change your Ecological Footprint. Complete the following survey and then retake the same Ecological Footprint quizzes.

Purpose: For students and parents to see if they can make changes in their lives and change their Ecological Footprint.

Materials: Access to the internet and the second part of the handout.

Procedure:

1) Complete the attached survey (Part 2).

2) Retake the Ecological Footprint quizzes you used in Part 1 using the Part 2 survey information. (This will allow you to use possible reduced information to calculate a lower ecological footprint.)

3) Try to print the final page if possible.

a. If you can’t print the last page, make sure you record how many hectares you use and how many planet Earth’s would be used if everyone was like you.

Answer the questions that follow:

Results:

1) How many hectares/acres did you use this time?

2) How many planet Earths would we need if everyone on Earth is like you?

Conclusion:

Write a 1 page reflection on what you learned from this activity. Use the following questions to guide your reflection.

1) What percentage in hectares did you save with your proposed modifications to your Ecological Footprint?

2) How will the changes you proposed in Part 2 influence the ecological effects on Earth?

3) What did you and your family learn from this activity?

4) How does your lifestyle affect the Earth?

5) Did small changes in lifestyle really impact your ecological footprint?

6) Can one person really make a difference in helping our environment?

An Ecological Footprint Survey

Part 2

The question numbers below do not correspond with the question numbers in the first survey. For some questions, use Part 1 to see your first answer to complete your second answer.

Diet Habits

1) The average American Diet is based on 3 meals a day, 7 days a week for a total of 21 meals.

a. How many meals do you eat in a week? ____

b. How many meals include meat? ____

c. Percentage of meals that include meat? ____

d. Can you cut your meat back at least one level? See question #1 in the first survey. By how much? _____

2) One of the biggest waste of resources is the amount of “left-overs” that are thrown away every year. Part of the problem is at times we cook to much, save them and intend to eat them but end up throwing them away. See your answer in the first survey and can you reduce the amount by one answer to lower the amount of waste. The best way to reduce “left-over” waste is to cook less, or make sure you use the “left-overs.” How much can you reduce your “left-overs” by? ________ (in percentage)

3) Can you change your eating habits to include more fresh fruits and vegetables that are grown in Kentucky? Look at your answer in the first survey and try to imagine buying more locally grown fruits and vegetables. How much can you buy locally? _____ (in ¼ ‘s)

Transportation

Answer these questions and then see how you might answer the questions in the first survey.

4) Is there a way to reduce the miles you drive in a year? How many miles can you reduce your driving by? _____

5) Can you increase the amount of time you carpool? In percentage, what percent will you car pool? _____

6) When you purchase your next vehicle, can you purchase a car with increased miles per gallon? (This probably won’t help you on this survey, but is something to think about).

7) If you don’t use or use very little public transportation, can you change your driving patterns and use more public transportation? How many miles can you increase usage of public transportation by? _____ miles

Travel

Since travel either involves business or vacations, this may be an area that will be difficult to change and thus has not been included in the second part. Please use your answers from the first survey.

Housing

8) Do you have older appliances that might be replaced soon? If so, can they be replaced with more energy efficient models? These appliances include refrigerator, dishwasher, washer, and dryer. Other items that need periodic replacement include heaters, air conditioners, and water heaters. Yes or No!

9) How many light bulbs in your house are energy efficient florescent bulbs?

a. Count all of the light fixtures in your house, include all fixed lights (built in) and move floor and desk lamps. Count = ________

b. Count how many currently have florescent bulbs. Count = ________

c. What percentage of fixtures currently have florescent light bulbs? ______

d. Some fixtures will be difficult to replace with florescent light bulbs because of existing technology. How many current incandescent light bulbs (traditional type) do you believe can be changed to florescent bulbs? ______

e. What total percentage of light bulbs will be florescent? ______

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