Title: Ecological Footprint Calculation
Course: BIS 105 Environmental Biology > Section: BIS 105 Environmental Biology

Q: Use the space below to post your results remembering to include units on all numbers.

How do you compare to an average American? What area resulted in your smallest footprint? Your largest? View the attached Excel or PDF file of the world’s ecological footprint broken down by country. How do citizens of other countries compare with you? Compare yourself with at least four other countries (make sure to match up your results with the correct unit, they are given in both hectares and acres)

Your ecological footprint is the amount of land and water required to support the demands you place on the environment (your consumption of food, goods, services, housing, energy) and process the waste generated. For 2005, the world's ecological footprint was 30% greater than the planet’s regenerative capacity.

Visit http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/ to calculate your personal ecological footprint. Record your results (don’t forget labels on your numbers) and a brief discussion (you should record the number of earths it would take if everyone had your lifestyle and the numbers for food, shelter, mobility, goods, and services. How do you compare to an average American? What area resulted in your smallest footprint? Your largest? What are some things you can do to reduce your impact?

View the Footprint and Biocapacity Results PDF and describe how your footprint (in acres, not planets) compares to people in at least 4 other countries. To give you some perspective, an area 91 yards of a football field is roughly 1 acre.