Assignment 3 - Ecological Footprint PDF

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Part A – Case Study Case Study 1 As per the case study the practice and habits of Sofia has a good habit of walking or cycling wherever she goes which really helps to protect biodiversity and also, it is amazing way to reduce the gasses from vehicles exiting into the air. They recycle responsibly and recues their waste which is a very common way to lower your ecological footprint. Those are some ways Sofia, and her 3 friends do to take part into reducing their ecological footprint. Other Ways I’ve come across that Sofia and her friends can improve their ecological footprint is based on how often she eats meat, however as stated above it can be considered a big ecological footprint or small depending on the times, she eats meat. Sofia has a bigger ecological footprint is the way she is not using a renewable source for lighting she is using a non-renewable source and that is an impact on a bigger ecological footprint. At last, would suggest improving their ecological footprint is to stop eating meat and focus on better eating choices and using a renewable source for energy and electricity instead of a non-renewable one.

Case Study 2 This particular case or scenario is based on having a bigger ecological footprint. Because they show, by using a nonrenewable source which on the other hand they could use a renewable source but does not have interest to use. They both forgets to recycle which means they are not responsible and on the other hand produces a lot of waste which is not good at all. They can improve his ecological footprint and start to recycle and manage his life productively by managing his waste. Lastly, John uses a vehicle everyday. However, he tries to walk when he wants but uses a motor vehicle everyday which is bad for the environment and has gasses being realised into the air. Also, they have a cause to lower their ecological footprint by buying meat and food from farms and fruits and vegetables that are local as well. At-last, I would suggest to improving their ecological footprint is to use a more renewable source for electricity and stop using a nonrenewable one.

Case Study 3 In this case study, the big ecological footprints being used, and the lower ecological footprints being used. They always take their Family vehicle to do activities and things daily using their vehicle, which is not a helpful way to reduce your ecological footprint. The family seems vey busy and eat meat regularly and to save time they eat lot of Pre-packaged food. Niko family has lowered their ecological footprint is the way they use electricity as a renewable source which is very beneficial, and the way family reduces their waste and recycles very often is very helpful and positive way to lower their ecological footprint. At-last, I would suggest improving their ecological footprint is not driving so much on a day-to-day basis and focus on other ways of transport.

Case Study 4 This case study depicts Alia`s family ecological footprint bigger as their family`s meal contains meat in almost all meals. They use electricity from renewable sources. Alia lives in a bigger house and drove 1 hour daily 5 – 6 days in a week which is a huge impact on making her ecological footprint bigger especially by driving how all the gases and gas emissions lead to the air. All five family members produces a lot of garbage without recycling at home. The ways for Alia`s family to improve their ecological footprint is by not having a lot of meat in their day-to-day meals, however they should focus on having vegetables and more natural sorts of foods and fruits. Also, Alia should explore a job near to her place so that she can walk to her office or bike too. These are alternatives where Alia and his family can improve her ecological footprint.

Part B

INTRODUCTION In a society such as the one we currently reside in, where consciousness of human impacts on environments, such as global warming, is becoming more relevant, the evolving concept of ones ‘ecological footprint’ is becoming more significant. Humans are revealing new ground-breaking technological advancements every day, and while these innovations are perceived as positive, we often fail to address the negative aspects of them. This sort of rapid growth and development requires large amounts of resources which are non-renewable to sustain and enhance. Thus, without action, it will have catastrophic environmental impacts that cannot be undone. As Tom McMillan stated in 2009, humans have worked to conquer Nature and find waysto utilize it to better our way of life, but unfortunately now we are “beating it to death”. The concept of the ecological footprint understands this and serves to counteract it.

The idea of the ecological footprint serves to put into perspective how much individuals can impact the environment around them. Tools such as Wackernagel et al (2000)’s Household Ecological Footprint calculator provides a means to roughly enumerate the amount of land required to support a household’s lifestyles. By computing such a figure, individuals can compare their results with the global average, weigh up their scores, and thus explore avenues to lower this amount. There can be a massive global effect by doing so in terms of sustainability. By figuring out what aspects of life are impacting one’s ecological footprint the most, individuals can adjust certain aspects of their lives, make more environmentally conscious decisions, and overall make the world a better place. The aim of this report is to understand how this calculator and the concept of the ecological footprint works in unison to help attain a better world. This dissertation will thus be detailing an investigation into the ecological footprint of my own home. The initial ecological footprint will be compared to the final figure, detailing what steps were undertaken to reach this new value, aswell as highlighting the major findings throughout the activity. Furthermore, the concept of the ecological footprint will be discussed about sustainability.

Results/Method A trial-and-error process was used in an attempt to find the most suitable and functional way forme to reduce my ecological footprint. This process was applied to all aspects included in the ecological footprint calculator. To ensure that the results I obtained were an accurate representation of my ecological footprint, all areas and values required in the calculations were monitored for a week. After planning out alternative methods to reduce the initial values, the new methods were also tested for another week to ensure that this new figure was an accurate enough representation to estimate my usages for a month. The reason for this is because the objective is to be as realistic as we possibly can in our approach, and this would be the best wayto do it. For aspects that could not be monitored very precisely (such as clothing and services), appropriate estimations were made and then multiplied by a factor of 4 to estimate the usage ina months’ worth of time. The task at hand utilizes many different aspects of an individual’s lifestyle to calculate their ecological footprint. This is the first time I had scrutinized as much as I could about whatI consume, and the results were quite shocking. Many aspects of my life are far above the global average. The largest contributors were the services and transportation category. For example, I unconsciously consumed roughly 135 liters of petrol monthly, which is immensely high. By cutting down on the amount I drive drastically, I was able to improve my footprint substantially. The process requires a lot of trial and error, but after figuring out what affects one’s ecological footprint the most, the final figure can be reduced by quite a big margin. Whilst I was experimenting and tweaking aspects of my life on the calculator, I would also research on multiple sites to best reduce the amount I could reduce my usage to a realistic degree. For example, ideally dropping the amount of gasoline usage from 135 litres to 0 litre would provide the best decrease, but multiple activities require that I commute via automobile. The overall results of the investigation can be attributed to the final figure obtained through the calculations which indicates how many global hectares is required to maintain my lifestyle. Initially, this figure was a per capita footprint of 15.9 hectares which is a substantially large amount. To put this into perspective, if the entire population had a lifestyle like mine, it would require about 9 earths to support the entire human race. After trying multiple different ways of lowering this value, the final figure was a per capita footprint of 6 hectares, which is a drastic change from the original value. If the entire population shared this new and improved lifestyle, itwould require about 3.4 planets, which although is still quite a massive number, is a massive improvement from the initial 9 earths.

DISCUSSION The task at hand required individuals to calculate their ecological footprints with the aid of Wackernagel et al (2000)’s Household Ecological Footprint calculator. In addition to calculating the ecological footprint, the final figure that is received is then scaled against national averages of countries around the world. The activity was rather eye-opening in many ways. It is often quite easy to get carried away and not be conscious of how minute details of your life affect everything around on a grand scale. With the aid of this calculator, individuals can make much more conscious decisions to improve their quality of life. The beauty of trying to improve one’s lifestyle to better preserve their environment is that they are increasing the quality of people around them because of trying to improve themselves. Thus, the purpose of such an activity isnot tied down to a single purpose. Though the core of it is fundamentally calculating and comparing one’s ecological footprint with others, the calculator gives insight into one’s lifestyle choices, and how they can improve their lives as well as those in their vicinity. As a person residing in Canada, which can be described as a developed country when compared to others, I am quite lucky to have countless resources that I can utilize which make my ecological footprint so high when compared with countries such as Bangladesh. As above-mentioned, the biggest contributors to my ecological footprint were the services and the transportation categories. The biggest difference between my before and after results would be the change in gasoline. As I partake in multiple different extra-curricular activities, I drive around quite a bit. The car that I use is also not very fuel-efficient. Though, I did find a way around this. On Saturday and Sundays, I have badminton training which I cannot take public transport to. Thus, what I decided to do was to ask my friend playing for the same team to pick me up for training sessions. My house was on his way to the soccer ground; thus, it was saving me the effort of driving there, and also my friend going out of his way to get me and eat up more petrol. Hence, my ecological footprint decreases whilst his remains the same. Also, I would make it a principle for myself not to drive to a destination if I was not taking at least one other person with me. By doing so, I drove less, and the times that I did resort to driving, it would not be for only myself. Similarly, as a person that is constantly doing different activities, services such as my phone are always required to make and receive calls. However, to reduce these costs, I would refrain from using social media as much as I could, as that is what I predominately utilized my phone for. Thus, by reducing the amount of money that I spent on these unnecessary expenses, I was able to significantly reduce my ecological footprint. Other than these aspects, the rest of the factors were quite ordinary. There were considerably identical to the averages on the excel sheet. These aspects were not as influential as those that were highlighted to be the highest contributors to the ecological footprint. It is said that the underlying philosophy of the ecological footprint is: “The limiting factor for human life on this planet is the regenerative capacity of the biosphere; all people are entitled to generate a lifestyle that is as ‘rich’ as anyone else. Humans cannot demand more than a modest and fair share of global productive habitat if ecosystem services/other speciesare to be protected and if equity is to be achieved.”

I would like to both agree and disagree with this statement. I agree with the statement as I am a firm believer in equity and equality – I am entitled to as much as any other person, no more or no less. Unfortunately, this utopia of equal shares cannot be achieved by using means such as the ecological footprint for multiple reasons. The ecological footprint is unique in that it is successful in demonstrating the detriment humans can have on the environment, but it cannot be said that this can point us in the correct direction in the battle against killing the earth. An equal distribution of materials and resources is an ideal situation but the differing lifestyles that each country has adopted must give way in order to attain this equity. Countries that are more developed are seen to live richer lives with more resources available to them. Though this seemslike an injustice to people in

3rd world or less developed countries, for the individuals classified as ‘wealthy’, stripping them of their current privileges in an attempt to attain equal distribution of what resources remain is seen as injustice from their perspective. The key factor distinguishing whether or not a person lives a ‘rich’ life is the economy they live in. A person’s cash flow, their spending ability and their consumption are all intertwined. I was able to have a per capita footprint of 15.9 hectares, which is 31.8x more than a citizen living in Bangladesh, who only needs 0.5 global hectares to support their lifestyle. Thus, equity cannot be established as each individual resides in different economies, have different opportunities, needsand lifestyles. Although everyone deserves a ‘rich’ lifestyle, this is not possible as there are too many extraneous variables to consider, thus proving the philosophy underlying the ecological footprint cannot change these inequalities. To elaborate even further, simply because I have the ability to cut my expenses to about 6 global hectares, this does near nothing on a global scale. For change to occur a collective effort is required, however as the population continues to increase, as time passes, there will always be a constant requirement for massive amount ofgoods and services.

CONCLUSION In conclusion, this investigation was insightful and inspiring in the pursuit of a better lifestyle that suits the environment around me. The project effectively displayed and demonstrated the influence that I have on the environment unconsciously on a daily basis. Going into the task I didnot honestly believe that I had this much of a detrimental effect on the environment, and I was absolutely shocked by the results. Through trial and error, items I thought I needed on a daily basis, were actually factors that caused such a large spike in my ecological footprint. Though I was able to successfully lower my ecological footprint below the national average, these calculations have been shown to be relatively incapable of detailing major changes to aim for amuch more sustainable future.

REFERENCES 1. Gacad, F. (2017, May 30). Gacad: Environment month. Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/144881/Lifestyle/Gacad-Environment-month 2. What is your ecological footprint? (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2021, from http://ecologicalfootprint.com/ 3. Dunn, C. (n.d.). Your ecological footprint: Defining, calculating, and reducing your environmental footprint. Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://www.treehugger.com/culture/your-ecological-footprint-definingcalculating-and-reducing-your-environmental-footprint.html 4. Ecological footprint. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://www.footprintnetwork.org/ourwork/ecological-footprint/...