Ecological Footprint...

"For every action there is a consequence"...With that being said, have you ever stopped to think about how your lifestyle impacts the environment? I'm sure that not many of us have. After calculating my ecological footprint (http://www.earthday.org/footprint-calculator), I realize just how much my everyday actions and lifestyle affects our environment. According to the calculator, if everyone lived like I do, it would take 5 planet Earth's to have enough resources.

I think that two of the biggest areas that I could work on improving would be my meat/animal consumption and also the services area. I wouldn't say that I am a huge carnivore but yes given a choice between a steak and a salad, I would probably chose the steak. I will say though, that I have seriously considered becoming a vegetarian or at the very least a pescatarian. Just like eating meat has its consequences that affect the environment so does eating fish, especially if you are eating farmed fish. Waste from a fish farm, if not properly taken care of, can run off in our ground water and eventually run off into our oceans thus adding to the pollution. On the flip side, eating wild caught fish although it is much healthier for consumption than famed fish, can also lead to over-fishing and the depletion of fishes in our oceans. This leads to a chain reaction because if there are less fish in the ocean, animals who are dependent on those fish for sustainability end up perishing, creating an unbalance in the food chain. If we as a general population consumed meat in moderation we could lessen the side affects of dairy and meat farms.

As for services, the quiz didn't really explain what "services" meant and to me it seems like it could mean how much electricity I use. I actually try to be very conscious about how much electricity I use. Whenever I leave a room or are not using my computer, I always try to shut off the lights and shut down my computer. I would say that my biggest issue is leaving the water running. In the mornings especially when I am brushing my teeth, I'll leave the water running while I'm brushing and I have to consciously tell myself to turn off the faucet.

All in all, I do try to do my part in helping our environment and not be part of the problem. At one of my jobs we go through so much paper, it's an office, and I started a recycling initiative. I have a bin in which I place paper, plastic and pretty much anything else that can be recycled. Then at the end of the week we have a recycling dumpster that I just empty it out in. If we as a society don't accept and realize that our actions no matter how big or small affect our environment, then we are just going to lead ourselves into extinction.