In order to use the formulas given by Merkel in Radical Simplicity, I multiplied my numbers used by 4 to give me my approximate monthly totals. At first when I calculated my total, I had an extremely high number in comparison to the average, and I thought to myself, “Wow, and I thought I was green....” Not going to lie, it stabbed me right (according to Merkel) in my not so much, ecofriendly heart. But thankfully, after recalculating, I realized that my ecological footprint was actually 16.135 acres per person in comparison to the average US Ecological Footprint of 24 acres per person. This made a lot more sense, especially since here at UCLA, I basically don’t use any mode of transportation, don’t have control over almost any goods and services, and/or my stocks.
To my surprise the top two categories which have the highest ecological footprint are my food and stocks. (19,448.8 food monthly total, and 262,122.2 stocks monthly total) I feel that eating from the dining halls its difficult to have control over the types of food you ingest. This footprint calculation is also not taking into consideration the organic options that I eat from the dining halls, or any other sort of sustainable action the dining hall may try to implement into their services. However, even if I did take the most sustainable actions possible for a student eating from the dining hall, I still would have to realize that even the smallest items like beans or ice cream have significant ecological footprints. Some short term goals for the way I eat, are that I am going to try to steer away from packaged foods such as cereal, which must be transported long distances and therefore, have a significant ecological footprint. I eat way to many packaged goods, so by the end of the quarter I hope to cut out some of my current “staple” foods, like cereal and replace them with more sustainable products. Meat plays the largest part in my food footprint, so my medium goal is to slowly remove meat from my diet to only a couple times per week. By limiting my intake of meat, my food footprint will lower dramatically. Although I cannot completely convert to being a vegetarian (as much as I would like to), when I am out of the dorms and living on my own, I plan to buy from local produce markets (such as farmer’s markets), buy in season, and have my own personal garden in my backyard. Each of these measures will help me to lower my food footprint which is not supported by local grocery stores.
Until I did this project, I never even realized that items such as furniture and appliances have such dramatic affects on footprints. It makes you realize how there are so many things we take advantage of in our modern lifestyles. My clothing, computer, and even desk I am typing on as we speak, all drastically heightened my footprint. Items such as my computer or printer cannot be removed from my lifestyle simply because I am a student, and they are necessities. Therefore for a short term goal, I can try to lessen my amount of clothes, shop from used clothing shops and/or American Apparel which each tackle different aspects of what contributes to the square yards of the stocks footprint. As a medium goal, I would like to lessen even further plastic and paper’s usage in my life. I have cut out a lot of plastics and paper, but if I continuously pay attention to the amount of paper and plastic is being used in everyday products, I can slowly cut it out almost all together. When I am older, in my long term goals, I would like to invest in furniture and appliances that are eco-friendly in my house. I feel that is the only way to try to lower this footprint without becoming a forest fairy like Merkel and migrating to a hut out in the wilderness. That, however, is not going to happen for me, so in the mean time, I will wait until I am older and try to install technology that is as efficient as it gets.
Measuring my Ecological Footprint has definitely gave me insight into the type of damage my lifestyle is putting on the planet. According to Merkel, it would take 92.14 Earths, if everyone lived like me. I don’t know about you, but that’s A LOT of Earths. By the end of the quarter, I would like to alter the way I eat as much as possible in the confinements of the dining hall by limiting myself to cereal (which technically isn’t even healthy for you) and any sort of packaged food (like those little stupid candies that always tempt me as I walk out of the dining hall). Watching over my trash and recyclables will also greatly lower my footprint. I feel the best I can do right now, is control what I can about my life (my trash and somewhat my food), and until I am living on my own...that is the best I can do for you, Merkel.
92 Earths?! Where are we gonna find those? We better get working on those space ships fast.
ReplyDeleteGood job!