Information Age Education

Ecological Footprint

December 12th, 2006

We all leave footprints in the sand, the question is, will we be a big heal, or a great soul.

‘Tis the holiday season for many of us. What choices will you make when it comes to the ecological footprint you place on the planet? Why not create a healthy footprint for yours and future generations! (This is a post from my class blog and I wanted to share it with you so that you can share it with your own family and students.)
First off, you may be asking, “What is an ecological footprint?” According to Wikipedia’s definition, “an ecological footprint is a metaphor used to depict the amount of land and water area a human population would hypothetically need to provide the resources required to support itself and to absorb its wastes.”

Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz to see how much resources you use. I hope you’re sitting down when you take it. It’s quite intense to hear the amount of resources we as Americans use. I also recommend you take the quiz pretending you are from another country. You’ll be flabbergasted at the difference!

Things to Consider About Sustainability and Your Footprint
1. When you buy something, it must last as long or longer than it takes to make the raw ingredients to be sustainable.

Water bottles: A plastic water bottle, which is made of petroleum, takes millions of years to create. Yet we throw it away after an hour.

millions of years to make > 1 hour to drink NOT sustainable

Jeans: Jeans are made from cotton, which takes less than a year to grow.

less than a year to grow < wear jeans for more than a year Sustainable

2. Packaging is a huge waste of natural resources. Buy things with a minimum amount of packaging. Also bring your own bags to the store. If it’s a small purchase, ask that they don’t put it in a bag.

Holiday Suggestions from My Family to Yours
My family used to do several things that I’d like to share with you to help you be more environmentally conscientious.

First, we often wrapped gifts in the comic section of the paper. It was fun and colorful, and we all agreed that it was an easy step we could all take for the planet.

We also had boxes that had tops and bottoms. The tops were wrapped in wrapping paper and we used these boxes year after year… not to mention the bows. This year I received some gifts for my 40th birthday and they were in the boxes that I remember from when a kid. What a nice childhood memory!

Create attractive cards or gift tags that identify gifts that can be used year after year. For example, “From Mom & Dad, To Rebecca.” We had little felt gift tags that we made and we used them every year for Christmas. Think of all of the paper we saved, and it was a sweet thing to see those little tags. We still have them 35 years later!

Another cool thing that we did is that we didn’t have a Christmas tree. In 2002, over 20,000,000 trees were cut in the US alone by commercial farmers. And that’s just for the US! We had a Christmas branch instead. We cut some large limbs from trees that needed to be pruned and from the limbs we created a “tree.” Everyone always commented on how beautiful our trees looked. UC Berkeley School of Forestry has an annual sale of trees that have been cut from national parks that are potentially a fire hazard. If you celebrate Christmas, see if there is an alternative that suits your family’s needs and concerns when it comes to Christmas trees.

For more information on ecological footprints, check out this web quest.

This holiday think about the purchases you are making and the gifts you are requesting. What ecological footprint will you leave on the planet for your generation and future generations?

Have a lovely holiday!