By Jessica Wind (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: June 6, 2012
I’ve never considered how much space we would need if everyone on the planet lived like me. As a full time student, I have no time to take a massive chunk out of our planet’s resources. Taking an online survey to find out my ecological footprint at myfootprint.org, I figured I’d be told to keep on doing what I’m doing. The website takes you through a series of questions about your diet, habits, energy use and so forth, then calculates how much land you take up – from the manufacturing of your clothes to the land on which your food is grown and processed.
Well, before the results came in I thought I was doing fine. Yes, I only do dishes and laundry when the loads are full (because I don’t have time to do them any sooner). Yes, most of my furniture is second hand (because I can’t afford a new couch). And yes, I only replace things when absolutely necessary (because a combination of the last two).
So with a click, my results were tallied. I didn’t do so well. Apparently, if everyone lived the typical student lifestyle, if we all lived off of Mr. Noodles and bananas, we would need over two Earths to sustain ourselves.
What on Earth (pun intended) am I doing wrong? After this survey, I realized that these days, it takes time and effort not to use up the Earth’s resources – and nothing at all to use it up. If there’s one thing student’s are low on, it’s time and effort.
My average consumption was pitted against the Canadian averages and measured by global hectares. My carbon footprint is comfortably below average, as is my housing and goods/services footprints. Yet I still need to improve drastically. The survey told me that in order to reduce my ecological footprint I need to change my dietary habits, the food footprint being the only one I scored above average, 27.57 global hectors (gha) against Canada’s 23.67gha.
I did notive that the survey seemed a little misguided at times. For instance, nowhere was I able to explain that I live in a basement suite. My closest options were a single family home or a building with four or fewer units. I didn’t feel that either of these accurately reflected the impact that my home would have on the environment, but, being well versed in multiple choice, I chose the best possible answer. I was also not given the option to explain that some of my appliances are energy efficient; it was all or nothing.
Following the survey is a link to a generalized list of how to reduce your ecological footprint. While the survey asked some pretty specific questions, the methods to fixing the problem are tired. Walk or take transit to work, recycle, eat less meat – nothing new to me.
As students we constantly hear that we are responsible for tomorrow’s change, that we are in charge of fixing the damage done by generations past. It would be wonderful if this survey gave a little insight on how to do that. We already know that recycling is good for the environment, and so is turning off lights in our homes – we are inundated with this information every day. After clicking on a link that promises tips on how to reduce my footprint on our planet, I don’t like being told what I already know. I’m tired of that.
Maybe I’m waiting for something more, something tangible and dramatic, a stick that I can shove into this spinning wheel that’s driving us into complete self-destruction. It’s clear that how we live isn’t sustainable, but now the question is, how do we change? Picking up the pieces from the mess our elders have left behind is a big job, and it looks like we’re going to have to get creative with the solution, because we don’t have two Earths.
