Happy Earth Day readers! It’s a grey, semi-rainy day here in
middle Tennessee, but that won’t stop us from doing a few things in our own
piece of good earth. I’m weeding my front flower beds in between rain drops
while enjoying my Primroses and thinking about how best my family can reduce
our footprint for our Earth Day cause this year.
Footprint Facts:
According to Earthday.org, “Humans are consuming natural resources at an alarming rate. For the past
couple of decades we have consumed more resources annually than the Earth can
replenish. Today humans consume the equivalent of 1.5 planets’ worth of
resources every year and, unless something changes, we are expected to consume
2 planets’ worth of resources by 2050! If we don’t act now to reduce this unsustainable behavior, we will
cripple the planet and threaten the living conditions of future generations.”
Where to Start:
- Take the Ecological Foot Print Quiz here.
- Select your location on the Map.
- Taking the quiz took just 5 minutes.
Here are my results:
It would take 4.5 Earth’s to provide enough resources for
our lifestyle and 20 global acres of land! Wow! I had no idea our ecological
footprint was this large. You can see all of our numbers on the graph below.
Even though my family
and I do well with our reduce, reuse, recycle plan of action; 44% of our
footprint is in services.
My Take Away:
It looks like this Earth Day, my family needs to discuss and
brainstorm ideas of how we can reduce our consumerism. Some ideas off the top
of my head are:
- Reduce our shopping trips
- Think of long term use of clothing and accessories
- Reduce paper consumption by reading papers and magazines online
- Buy clothing accessories from Consignment shops more often
I plan on working on reducing our footprint throughout the
year and will be taking this quiz again next April. I’ll share my numbers again
next Earth Day.
Join Us:
I hope you’ll join us today as we make global strides to
better our Earth. This is the only home we’ve got and it is our responsibility
to leave it in good standing for future generations! Find several causes to
plug in to at EarthDay.org.
How do you celebrate Earth Day?
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