Ecological Eye Opener
I took a couple of the ecological calculators to figure out where I stand with my eco life. On the IUHPE website I took an activity that told me that if everyone lived like I did, we would need 4.9 earths to sustain us. Instantly the guilt set in of how much my life impacts the earth. Instead of guilt getting to me I decided to do the best I can with my new knowledge throught this class. I now find myself shutting off lights, unplugging devices, biking/walking whenever possible and my new mission is to try and start taking the bus. For my next trip, I may consider taking a train across country rather than a plane. I've made changes in the past to start being eco friendly such as eating what I NEED, showering in shorter time periods, recycling, etc and I'm going to keep doing those things.
At the same time, I wondered how accurate these websites are. How do you know to calculate how many earths it will take to sustain all of us? Another flaw is that these websites don't ask about what your effort in reducing my ecological foot print but instead they ask only what your negative actions are. I'm just going to keep doing the best I can and hopefully I can help other people change as well.
~Shannon Flaherty
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point about how the calculator exercises don't ask about the positive things you do to help the environment. Good for you for remembering and feeling good about all those positive changes you have made and not dwelling on the negatives.
I have also noticed that they don't give you ideas of how to help reduce your footprint. They just tell you how much you use and nothing to help you reduce it like u said. I hope you start to take the bus. It's kind of confusing at first but once you figure it out its pretty cool that you don't need to drive and waste all that gas to get somewhere when you can take the bus and that you are helping out the environment at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI agree that you can only do the best you can! I'm glad you are not taking the results as a negative thing but rather as a motivator to continue making positive eco-chic lifestyle changes. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDelete