I took the ecological footprint test to see how i was doing in helping our earth. Some of the questions i was unsure about because they ask me things i might not necessarily know, like how many kilometres i drive each year in the car and how often i travel on the subways or trains. I had to guess on half of them, but still trying to be truthful and not cheat to make my score better. My final score was "if everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle we would need 4.28 earths" WHAT?! I didn't think i lived a life that bad but i guess if everyone had habits like me we really would need that many earths. I clicked on how to reduce my footprint and it gave me some really good tips like walking or biking more often or adopting energy saving tops for my electricity. I'm definitely going to take these tips to heart because seeing that we would need 4.28 worlds really showed me that i can improve
My ecological footprint was much greater than I first expected, living in a home where we try to keep our footprint relatively low due to the high cost of energy bills living with 6 people, I assumed we were doing a relatively good job. My prediction was definitely wrong, if everyone were to live like I do we would need 4.61 earths, and considering the only planets we have ever seen that may look like Earth would take millions of years to reach that is not the ideal outcome. Although my carbon emissions footprint was low, I believe that it will change for the worse once I have my license because I will "want" a car, and of course driving by myself will be the first thing I will want to do, and that will put another needless car on the road that will contribute to our overall carbon dioxide emissions. Carpooling is the way to go if you are a commuter, so driving a friend to school could be classified as a good solution, but living under 5km from the school there are means of transportation that could get me there having no carbon footprint at all. Walking or taking a bike would produce 0 emissions but would make my life a little more inconvenient, but prolong it in the long run. I could also use public transport.. Oh wait Georgetown is living in the stone age, and doesn't have public transport, if the mayor could only come up with a transit system it would reduce everyones carbon footprint in Georgetown because we wouldn't have to rely on people who have cars for transportation, and it would also make the town a place of minimal traffic. Reducing my housing footprint would also be very ideal, the house that I live in was built in the 90's, and does not exactly reflect what I would like to see in houses that are being built today. My house has very poor insulation especially in my room above the garage. This means for me in the winter I am having to use an excessive amount of power to keep my room heated, with an additional heater plugged into the wall as well as the accompanying furnace. The same goes for the summer where I have to use a fan, and a small A/C generator in order to stay cool. This could all be avoided if the building company had used more insulation effectively, insulation that could be comprised of recycled materials, and would greatly reduce my footprint not to mention our energy bill. If I were able to re-build my house today some of the changes I would include would be: -Climate control for single rooms: There are heating/cooling systems that are specific for single rooms, this is perfect because heating in hallways, and some rooms that are not used is almost unnecessary, so with this product you could greatly reduce your heating/ ac footprint. -Low flow toilets- Low flow toilets offer a variety of flushing options allowing you to use a minimal amount of water, water that is treated in plants to be clean using great amounts of energy to do so. Reducing the amount of fresh water you use will have a positive outcome on the environment, and will also keep your water bill low. -Energy efficient windows- These will keep you warm in the winter, and cool during the summer the ideal product for every home owner these windows allow for the suns rays to be attracted therefor heating your house in the winter, and it also uses a multi pane method which does not allow heat/ cool air to be conducted through to the outdoors.
In the end for me I will now always be keeping the thought in the back of my head that If everyone lived like me there would be no Earth to call our own. Our planet would be damaged beyond recognition and that is not how I would like the human race of the 21st century to be remembered by. Doing little things around your house to reduce your carbon footprint does indeed help, but for me its the big picture, I would like to live in a world where one day everyone is living in homes that have zero carbon emissions, living in homes that are built smart is the future, we just need to act on those ambitions.
I took the ecological footprint test to see how i was doing in helping our earth. Some of the questions i was unsure about because they ask me things i might not necessarily know, like how many kilometres i drive each year in the car and how often i travel on the subways or trains. I had to guess on half of them, but still trying to be truthful and not cheat to make my score better. My final score was "if everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle we would need 4.28 earths" WHAT?! I didn't think i lived a life that bad but i guess if everyone had habits like me we really would need that many earths. I clicked on how to reduce my footprint and it gave me some really good tips like walking or biking more often or adopting energy saving tops for my electricity. I'm definitely going to take these tips to heart because seeing that we would need 4.28 worlds really showed me that i can improve
ReplyDeletehttp://myfootprint.org/en/take_action/reduce_your_footprint/ this is my source i used for reducing my footprint
ReplyDeleteMy ecological footprint was much greater than I first expected, living in a home where we try to keep our footprint relatively low due to the high cost of energy bills living with 6 people, I assumed we were doing a relatively good job. My prediction was definitely wrong, if everyone were to live like I do we would need 4.61 earths, and considering the only planets we have ever seen that may look like Earth would take millions of years to reach that is not the ideal outcome.
ReplyDeleteAlthough my carbon emissions footprint was low, I believe that it will change for the worse once I have my license because I will "want" a car, and of course driving by myself will be the first thing I will want to do, and that will put another needless car on the road that will contribute to our overall carbon dioxide emissions. Carpooling is the way to go if you are a commuter, so driving a friend to school could be classified as a good solution, but living under 5km from the school there are means of transportation that could get me there having no carbon footprint at all. Walking or taking a bike would produce 0 emissions but would make my life a little more inconvenient, but prolong it in the long run. I could also use public transport.. Oh wait Georgetown is living in the stone age, and doesn't have public transport, if the mayor could only come up with a transit system it would reduce everyones carbon footprint in Georgetown because we wouldn't have to rely on people who have cars for transportation, and it would also make the town a place of minimal traffic.
Reducing my housing footprint would also be very ideal, the house that I live in was built in the 90's, and does not exactly reflect what I would like to see in houses that are being built today. My house has very poor insulation especially in my room above the garage. This means for me in the winter I am having to use an excessive amount of power to keep my room heated, with an additional heater plugged into the wall as well as the accompanying furnace. The same goes for the summer where I have to use a fan, and a small A/C generator in order to stay cool. This could all be avoided if the building company had used more insulation effectively, insulation that could be comprised of recycled materials, and would greatly reduce my footprint not to mention our energy bill. If I were able to re-build my house today some of the changes I would include would be:
-Climate control for single rooms: There are heating/cooling systems that are specific for single rooms, this is perfect because heating in hallways, and some rooms that are not used is almost unnecessary, so with this product you could greatly reduce your heating/ ac footprint.
-Low flow toilets- Low flow toilets offer a variety of flushing options allowing you to use a minimal amount of water, water that is treated in plants to be clean using great amounts of energy to do so. Reducing the amount of fresh water you use will have a positive outcome on the environment, and will also keep your water bill low.
-Energy efficient windows- These will keep you warm in the winter, and cool during the summer the ideal product for every home owner these windows allow for the suns rays to be attracted therefor heating your house in the winter, and it also uses a multi pane method which does not allow heat/ cool air to be conducted through to the outdoors.
In the end for me I will now always be keeping the thought in the back of my head that If everyone lived like me there would be no Earth to call our own. Our planet would be damaged beyond recognition and that is not how I would like the human race of the 21st century to be remembered by. Doing little things around your house to reduce your carbon footprint does indeed help, but for me its the big picture, I would like to live in a world where one day everyone is living in homes that have zero carbon emissions, living in homes that are built smart is the future, we just need to act on those ambitions.
Bibliography:
ReplyDeleteMy carbon footprint: http://myfootprint.org/en/quiz_results/
Efficient Heating/Cooling: http://www.carrier.com/homecomfort/en/us/
Low flow toilets: http://water.greenventure.ca/low-flow-high-efficiency-toilets
Efficient windows: http://www.efficientwindows.org
Eco friendly homes: http://www.efficientwindows.org