Ecological Footprint Re-Calculation

At the beginning of the quarter, I calculated my ecological footprint and these are the results that I got:

If everyone in the entire world lived the same way as I did, it would take 4.1 planet Earths to sustain everyone. This is not a good thing! I constructed some goals to attempt to reduce this number. My goals were:

1. I will start a compost bin in my apartment with my two roommates so that our food waste isn't just thrown in the trash but instead can be carried on into a cyclical system of putting the food back just where it came from in the first place. 
2. On the first day of class, the alliteration of Meatless Monday really stuck with me so once a week, every Monday, I will stay away from any meat at all seeing as that is where a fair amount of my impact is rooted.
3. The food that I choose to purchase is more frequently than not something that's a little more on the convenient side rather than the eco-conscious side. With that being said my final goal for the quarter will be to visit the farmer's market or the co-op to purchase locally grown produce and meat products once a week as a substitution to taking a trip to Frey Meyer or Hagen. 

After 10 weeks of implementing the necessary changes, I recalculated my footprint and this is what I got:

After my effort to make changes in my day to day life, my ecological footprint was reduced by 0.1 planet Earths. I was really expecting that it would be more than this and was slightly disappointed at the results that I got. I suppose a little improvement is better than no improvement but there is more definitely room for more changes to be made in order to get that number down even more. 

The goal that I was most successful with was composting in my household as well as Meatless Monday. I could have gone and bought more locally grown foods for sure but it is really expensive and a lot of the foods that I eat aren't grown locally during the current season that we are in. If they are, they fall outside my budget. 

Overall, I am moderately satisfied with how my goals went this quarter but I definitely think it could have gone better. The biggest thing that I learned through doing this was that there are so many little everyday decisions that we all make that can add up significantly over time to make a pretty substantial environmental impact. Another thing that I learned is that people will follow your lead. If other people see you making these small everyday changes and notice that your quality of life is not diminished in any way at all, they will be more likely to join you in making more of an effort to reduce their own footprint. 

Just because the quarter is coming to an end, that doesn't mean I am going to stop implementing my goals. I will continue to compost, continue (or at least really try) to have at least one meatless day a week, and as the weather gets nicer and more produce can be locally grown, I will buy a lot more locally. This has been a really eye opening experience and I am grateful to be able to better myself and spread the word to help our world.  

A link to my current event can be found here.

There's a new idea coming out that is to use the tides of the oceans to create energy. It is a pretty novel concept with a lot of unanswered questions but there is no doubt that there is kinetic energy in moving water. The tides happen no matter what and if there could be some way to harness that energy, it could be a really big game changer!