Taking a look at my Ecological Footprints

MY RESULTS:

FOOD: 6.9

MOBILITY: 0.2

SHELTER: 6.7

GOODS/SERVICES: 4.7

TOTAL FOOTPRINT: 18

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 4.2 PLANETS.
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No, I don’t believe it is fair that Americans consume more than their share of the earth’s resources. I believe that most Americans pamper themselves and their lives way too much for their own good. Americans are so used to having all their needs met by the availability of resources. However, having all of this availability – being able to get things within a hand’s reach, can lead to consequences.

With the convenience of having resources so available, it has caused people to be lazy and wasteful. One example of being lazy is that people lack simply exercise. Here at Purdue, the bus system is very convenient because a bus comes about every 5-10 minutes. Because of this, many students take the bus rather than walk – even though sometimes it would be faster to walk than to wait for the bus to come. For the buses to run continuously all day, this definitely adds to the air pollution, which may then cause negative health problems.

One example of being wasteful is the amount of food wasted in the dining courts. Eating at the dining court is like eating at a buffet – there are so many different foods to choose from – that often students pile up their plates with more food than they actually need. But the availability of so much food is so attracting that students often fill up 2 or more plates. But once the students start eating and are halfway through their meal, they realize that they weren’t as hungry as they thought and don’t finish their meal. As a result all that food is thrown away and wasted. There are so many other people in the world starving and here are Americans, throwing away good food as if it was nothing.

Americans need to realize that keeping their current lifestyles will only generate harm to the environment in the future. Americans need to take greater responsibility in making the world a better place. Americans should learn to better manage the resources around them and not take them for granted so much.

Are the foods I eat genetically modified?

I kept a log of the food and drinks I consumed on Thursday, March 27. For breakfast, I ate 4 slices of white bread. For both lunch and dinner I ate in the dining court. All the food I ate consisted of “slow foods”. For lunch, I ate a grilled cheese sandwich with ham, a Caesar salad, a piece of Oreo cream cake, and I drank chocolate milk. For dinner, I ate potato skins with cheese, a piece of cinnamon bread, a bowl of peaches and papaya, and I drank orange juice.

Looking back at the foods that I consumed, I think that I ate better than I usually do on most days. Though my food choices may not have been the healthiest, I actually ate a variety of foods with the mix of grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy.

Analyzing the foods I ate, I believe that probably most of the ingredients used to make my meals were genetically modified. The chocolate milk I drank may have been modified by the cows and what they were fed that produced the milk. I don’t believe that I ate organic fruits. It is not the season for peaches and papaya so the fruit I ate was probably canned. The potato skins I ate were fairly large so the potatoes may have been modified to cause them to grow bigger. I would guess that of all the foods I ate, the potatoes had to travel the farthest to get here – maybe from Idaho!

(S)(P)(R)(I)(N)(G) (B)(R)(E)(A)(K) (!)

Although I usually don’t go anywhere during Spring Break, I always look forward to a week-long break. This is the first year that I had Spring Break in March instead of April. A low point of my break was that I felt this break was more of a Winter Break than a Spring Break. Another low point is that I felt this break wasn’t really a break from school because I spent the majority of my break doing school work. I was able to finish 2 major projects for 2 of my classes and finish reading a book for my literature class.

The highs of my break included catching up on sleep, playing video games, cooking, and shopping. My mom bought 2 new video games so I spent parts of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday playing with my sisters and friends. It’s always fun playing games and winning!

On Saturday, my sisters and I baked cheesecake cupcakes for fun. We made a variety of flavors including chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla. Although we had to make adjustments to measurements because we were short of ingredients, the cheesecake cupcakes turned out delicious! My dad liked them so much that he wanted us to teach him how to make it!

Now that I am in college, I feel that I don’t get to go shopping as much as I did at home. So whenever I have a break and get a chance to go shopping, I will definitely take it! I bought new clothes and 3 pairs of shoes. I am pretty excited that I finally bought a pair of boots…even if there may no longer be any more snow this year. Hey, there’s always next year!

Classes started again today and I wish it was still break! Break definitely went by too quickly! But overall, I felt that I had a great break and got a lot accomplished.