Comparing Our Ecological Footprints Summary: This activity will help you determine your own ecological footprint and compare it to others in your class and the world.
Introduction: Have you ever thought how your life style impacts the world around you? Each of us uses up the world's resources and produces waste on a daily basis. It all adds up. In this activity you will calculate your own ecological footprint [the land and water area that would be required to support you] and compare it to others. Hopefully, this will provide you an opportunity to see how you can become more aware in your use of resources.
Materials:
- Ecological Footprint Calculator (Downloadable from the web)
Classroom Management: Students should work individually to log their use of resources. Depending on the number of available computers, students may work in groups to calculate their individual ecological footprint, sharing their results within their groups. It should take each student less than 5 minutes s to calculate their footprint. The class should record an average value.
Activity Steps:
1. Logging your use of resources
These are just some of the resources we use (or abuse) during an average day:
- water (e.g., taking a bath, using the toilet, taking a drink from a water fountain, brushing our teeth etc.),
- electricity (e.g., turning on a light, using an electric alarm clock, heating with electric blanket, furnace, etc.),
- fossil fuels (e.g., taking a bus or car or train or plane, cooking with a gas stove or oven, heating with gas or oil furnace, etc.),
- animals (e.g., eating meat, using any animal products like oils and fats, wearing leather, etc.),
- plants (e.g., eating ice cream or salads, writing a letter, cutting your grass, etc.)
- air (e.g., filling your lungs, using your car, destroying the rain forests, etc.)
Work with your group to identify those resources you impact in a day.
Log your use of resources for one day. It would be interesting if you recorded your use of resources both on the weekend and a school day. Never take anything for granted. For every action you take or comfort that you enjoy, consider the resource(s) that you impact. How characteristic is your log of your weekly, monthly, or yearly use? Think about what you could have done to decrease your use of resources.
2. Ecological Footprint Calculator
Now that you have had time to evaluate your personal energy needs, go to the Ecological Footprint Calculator and download it. Follow the instructions on the web and find your calculated ecological footprint results (in hectares) with others in the class. A hectare is 10,000 square meters or 2.47 acres. How many Earth's would be needed to sustain your life style? Print out your results.
Extensions:
Have your parents or other family members calculate their ecological footprint. How does your footprint compare to theirs?
Selected References:
http://www.lead.org/leadnet/ecofootprint/