Ecological Footprint Quiz:
So after taking the ecological footprint quiz, I am kind of ashamed. If everyone lived the way I did, it would take 3.5 planets for everyone to live! This blew me away because in a naive way I thought I lived pretty good compared to some people. I was wrong! I guess I should do more recycling, use less water and shut off lights and the TV when I am not watching it. Something my roomates and I could really work on is not leaving our curling and flat irons on because we tend to let them sit on for quite a while before we use them. I could really work on driving less and walking more (even though I never drive to school and Duluth weather is very difficult sometimes, but enough excuses already!) more conscious about what I throw away when pertaining to food and plastics. Also, when it comes to the food I eat I could work more on buying locally grown foods and not as much packaged items. Travel Calculator:
I chose to take the travel calculator quiz because I travel quite a bit(especially this year!). Whether its going on vacation( which I went to Mexico in January and I will be going to Arizona in March,) or driving back and forth from home which is 3 hours there and back which is six hours of driving! YUCK! I thought this quiz would be appropriate to see how my traveling this year affects our earth. It amazed me to think of how much pollutants such as carbon dioxide, particulates and nitrogen oxide that I am putting in the air each time I drive long distances or fly. I think from now on I will rethink going home so much and on the flying subject...how can I help this? It is so convenient to just hop on a plane and go wherever you need to go in a few hours? At the end of the quiz the computer generates some helpful hints on how you can help this situation. I found these really helpful. You can take this quiz and get helpful hints by going to http://www.travelcalculator.org.
Check it out!
General Electrical Energy Cost Calculator:
I liked talking this quiz because it made me really open my eyes about how much electricity I am using in my house. I live with three other girls, and we really do use a lot of electricity( according to our electric bills.) It asked you put in how much you use for TV, radio, computer, lighting, etc. My calculated total was $30.77 for how much it would cost in a month for just me. This would definitely make a huge difference on our electric bill each month if each girl used this much also. I will be trying to change my electricity habits...even starting with one thing at a time will make a huge difference.
After taking these 3 quizzes, I realize that our world is not going to last forever. Either we take action now, or watch it continue to slowly fade away. Where will we be then? If we just take tiny steps towards bigger ones, and work together...WE CAN DO IT!
Posts
I'll be curious to see if you can decrease your electric bill over the semester by incorporating some of the things you learned. Keep us posted!
ReplyDeleteHey Katie- I do a lot of the same things as you.. and when I took my quiz, it said I would need 5 earths, so I REALLY have to start working on being more environmentally helpful!
ReplyDeleteSee you bright and early!
Katie!
ReplyDeleteI never even thought about the flat irons and curling irons! I usually heat mine up in the morning and then let it get really hot and good ya know! oh my gosh you brought up a really great point and that's another way I can work to decrease my footprint!:)
Thanks girl!
Hey Katie- I enjoyed reading your post. I think you and I are on the same page for a lot of things. First of all, I was thinking how wasteful my roommates and I are for leaving curling irons, straighteners, and hair dryers plugged in all the time. Also, I fly to Colorado about once a month and although I had an eye-opening experience learning how bad that is for the environment, I keep telling myself: it is worth the convenience. I think everyone should work on putting the environment's health over our convenience. That is probably one of the hardest things to do... --S
ReplyDeleteKatie- I had to laugh when I read the part about leaving flat irons on because my sister did that once and almost started a fire by doing that!! Did you know that even leaving things that are plugged in like your TV, toaster, cell phone charger, radio and other appl. still use energy?? So if you unplug things like that and only plug them in when you use them it might help too...its hard to remember to do things like that so one way that i found helpful is the power strips and have things plugged into that and just turn off the power strip when i am done.
ReplyDeleteHey Katie!
ReplyDeleteYou brought up some really good points about your habits and how you can improve them. My roommates and I also need to work on our utility usage every month, especially our gas bill lol. Also I think Abbey's idea about going to the whole foods co-op is great! I'll go if we really are planning on doing it! Good job on the post! Seeya in class.