What's your impact?

Our grade twelve class took a variety of online Ecological Footprint calculator quizzes and here's some of our findings taken from a google classroom discussion we had.

"If everyone were to live like me it would take 5.1 earths. The places that I need to improve on are transportation, shelter, goods and services. I could improve my footprint by traveling less by car and bike or walk more , making less trips into town. For shelter make sure that the products in my house are energy efficient and environmentally friendly."

"I took 2 different quizzes and found 2 different results, one quiz 1 would need 4.7 earths, while on another I would need 2.3 earths. I found it was really interesting that I had such a variance in results, because many of the questions were very similar with in the 2 tests. In both tests I scored highest in the food and services section, I feel like here in Angus we lack a lot of organic and local foods because most people buy their groceries from Sobeys or No frills. Does anyone know of any organic or local markets that myself and others in the class could shop at to reduce the amount of processed foods we eat?"

"After taking two quizzes my results concluded that we would require 1-2 earths if everyone lived the same way that I do. My housing footprint was close to being average, and my carbon, food, goods and services footprint was very low compared to the average. I found these results from the first and second websites. I think my footprint is low because my family has our own garden, we live on a farm so we use our own resources, my house is heated by a wood stove, and I don't travel very much."

"I'm not surprised that to live my lifestyle, it'd take 3.42 Earths because I do live in a large home, as well as the fact that my averages are still well below the averages in Canada. My family almost always uses energy efficient appliances as well as really tries to limit what temperature the thermostat is at, though I tend to use LOTS of water. I tend to also spend a lot of money on electronics that I really don't need as I realize it now."