Eye Opener: Ecological Footprints

Before having to start this assignment for an eye opener, I really had no idea what our ecological footprints were. I now know that this is the demand that we as humans use on our Earth's ecosystem. Taking these quizzes (which I absolutely loved because I'm a dork like that) really opened my eyes, as I saw how unfriendly I am being towards this earth! YIKES! (Picture taken by Ashley Penrod)


The first quiz that I took was the Ecological Footprint Quiz I could hardly even stand my life when I got my results back! First of all, if everyone lived like I did it'd take a rousing 4.2 Earth's to give us enough resources. Who do I think I am taking up this many planets?! I didn't really understand the next part of my results, which was that it would take 18.6 global acres of the Earth's productive area to support my lifestyle. After looking into it a little bit more I think it's so high because of the electricity usage. I could see the whole electricity thing being pretty high... our last heating bill for our house was $340.00. Don't ask my roommates and I how it got so high, because really our house is freezing cold for at least 23 out of the 24 hours a day. We usually try to keep it at around the high 60's. However, we would keep it on all day. After this last bill, we set our heat up on a timer so it only comes on at like 5:00-10:00 and then goes down for the day, and the night, while we're not using it very much. We'll see if this helps (for our sanity and our wallets lets hope so) when the next bill comes around. One thing that makes us wonder about our heat situation is that we don't use the downstairs of our house other than the kitchen. One of our roommates moved out at semester and she was the only one living on the main floor (If anyone knows of someone who needs a house for next year let me know!) With her gone, there is no need to heat up the entire downstairs, however there is really no way around this, so we feel we're wasting a lot of heat on that. Other than the whole heat thing, we really do try hard to conserve as much energy as possible. We're pretty big sticklers when it come to leaving lights on or running unnecessary water. So, I'd hope this is why my results are so high.

I also thought I'd take the test about traveling, because I travel WAY to much and I know this. My results didn't really surprise me... I got "worse than average". Here's some reasons that I would guess this could be like this. First of all I work in Gary West Duluth. For those of you who aren't familiar with that neck of the woods, I've included a map of how far "West" it is. Honestly, I drive at least 30 miles a day for work (and I work 4-5 days a week.) I know this is horrible, but really there's not much I can do about it. My roommate works with me at the same house as well, and on days we can, we try to drive out together, but sense with both work with girls, and they have their own lives and activities it's hard to do. Saturdays we usually try to get them to want to do the same thing, for the sanity of us all. Another reason I could see my results being so high, is because I live almost 300 miles away in Austin (home of SPAM.) I go home way to often and don't go home for long periods of time. So the gas really piles up. I thought that once I got my job I'd cut back on the gas and going home, but that really hasn't seemed to happen. I usually don't have passengers either, because everyone from Austin has cars up here I swear. So, in the future... or like now, I'm going to try not to go home as often or if I really want to/need to, I will try really hard to bring a passenger, although I don't know if they coudl put up with my singing for 4 hours of car rides! Anyways, these quizzes really opened my eyes (which is why there probably called eye openers?) I use way more of everything that I should, and even though I know the reasons I haven't tried all that hard to stop them! But from here on out, I'm going to try. I made my roommates take the tests as well! They didn't like their results either, so together we're going to change some things; less heat, drive together more, no lights, more candles, etc... Together we can do it!