Everyone has a different ecological footprint. It analyses our lifestyle choices, so no two will be the same. Our ecological footprints reflect our choices in food, electricity, gas, heating and cooling, recycling habits, housing and transport. For example, if your diet contains a lot of locally grown, fresh food, it has to travel a smaller distance, giving you a smaller ecological footprint. A large ecological footprint would show use of a lot of the Earth’s resources.
Ecological footprints differ depending on whether you are vegetarian, what clothing you buy, what appliances you use and how you get around. The Pygmy people of Africa have no electricity, personally hunt their food and work together as a group. They are one of the most sustainable groups of people on the planet, but even if everyone lived like that we would still use 0.9 Earths. I consider myself fairly ecological, but if everyone lived the way I did we’d need more 2 Earths. The Pygmy people live so differently to the way we do and it shows how off track of a sustainable future we really are.
To reduce your ecological footprint you can do many things. You can turn down the heating in winter. Eat less meat during the week, or even start off with a ‘No meat Tuesday’. You can try to travel in a car with someone else rather than by yourself. You can go to farmer’s markets rather than big brand supermarkets. There are endless options, ranging from simple things like changing a light bulb, to much larger things like running for council. Everything makes a difference, you just need to get involved.
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Very nice post. The balance between active and reflective was quite good. A couple of small things. The footprint does not analyse but you corrected this in the next sentence. Once you have introduced yourself in paragraph two, some nice symmetry would be to continue that thought with the actions that you have been inspired to undertake in order to lessen your footprint. Look forward to future posts.
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