"If everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle, we would need 4.96 earths". Previously my ecological footprint was 5.02 earths.

The 1st graph is my new ecological footprint. The 2nd is my old one. I was disappointed that there was only minimal improvements to my footprint but I know why its not lower. There was some major 'guesstamations' with the traveling miles and the food footprint is very subjective and changes from week to week. It bothered me that the things that I did change in my daily activities are not weighted specifically with the test even if they were suggested on the "Reduce your Footprint" page. Therefore, the test does not show that I am improving very much...Discouraging!

First of all, as of this year I am traveling to California a lot more that I would normally because my boyfriend now goes to school there.

I have also not been focused on how I am eating because I have been so busy.

From the looks of the two graphs, it appears that I have improved on everything but my food and goods and services Footprints.

I think the best part about this test is that it makes me more aware of how I am impacting the planet. I can safely say that I think a lot more about what I'm purchasing and I try and share this knowledge with others too!

Over the course of this quarter I did achieve eating less meat and buying less stuff. I definitely had a hard time taking shorter showers, and driving less. I decided to buy re-useable bags for the grocery store and that so far has worked out well because I have used them every time I've been shopping. The plus to bringing your own bags is that you can fit more in each bag and they are way easier to carry. This is a big plus because I live on the top floor of our apartment building which makes grocery shopping a huge inconvenience.

I'm definitely attepmting to continue to reduce my footprint as well as my close friends' and familys'. I think that people are un-educated and thats a big reason why there are so many issue with the planet.

http://www.myfootprint.org/en/your_results/?id=777099

OLD TV's

Remember when your cable provider told you that your TV's would no longer work unless you switched to a digital one?

What your cable company didn't tell you was that about half of those TV's would still work; all you needed was a little box converter.


In England, "This year, the council has recycled 50,000 analogue TVs thrown away by households, of which 30,000 could have been upgraded to receive digital TV signals with a simple £20 set-top box."


They aren't doing a good enough job getting the word out that people are not being forced to buy new televisions when their's work just fine. The cost of getting a new tv and dumping that perfectly functional older TV is quite a bit higher than if you were to spend the $20 on a "set-top" box.

I still have my old television that I bought about 5 years ago for less than $100 and I got the little box hook-up and my TV works better than it did before! Overall, I don't believe that many companies are letting their customers know that they are able to keep their old ones with little to no cost to themselves and the environment!

Here is the Link if your interested in the full article:


http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/the-digital-tv-switch-causes-70-rise-in-electronic-trash.php

Green Travels

So this past weekend, I flew down to California to visit my boyfriend that transferred down to Redlands University because he wanted to continue to play football. Since this change in my relationship I know that I will be flying more than I ever have. The flew on Southwest Airlines which are always cheap flights but I was curious what the industry is doing to become more green. When searching the Sierra Club Green Life website, I came across a piece about Southwest!

I was happy to see that they are in the process of building a "green airplane". It's a Boeing 737-700 that features a 100 percent recyclable, carbon-neutral carpet, recycled seat covers, and lighter seat components.

There is even talk of reducing the carbon footprint more because the the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it would approve biofuels for commercial flights by 2010.

This is great news for those that are tired of the "staycations" (staying at home to relax and reduce their footprint)!

Here's the article if you're interested! Click on the links inside the article to learn more!

http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/2009/10/southwests-green-plane.html

current event for 11/5

I came across this video when I was looking on the National Geographic Daily News website.





We have talked about purchasing renewable energy in class and for the most part it doesn't seem to have an immediate benefit which is what people are looking for. PSE offers a renewable energy option but that does not mean that you will be actually using that renewable energy as well as paying extra for something that should be cheaper to produce. Purchasing a wind turbine for those areas that can produce cheaper energy for others is a great alternative! If I owned a house that was in an area with lots of wind, I would definitely spend the couple thousand in order to produce my own energy! In the end, my ecological footprint would be greatly reduced without significantly changing my everyday habits.