Your Ecological Footprint: Defining, Calculating, and Reducing Your Environmental Footprint
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA 
on 02. 7.08
Ecological footprint: what is it?
An analysis that gauges our impact on the planet's biological systems, the ecological footprint measures human consumption of natural resources in comparison to Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate them. Individually, each of us has "a footprint," and, collectively, they aggregate across geographical zones and other means of classification. Calculation of the footprint takes into account just about everything we do; from the food we eat, to the house we live in, to the car we drive and the other consumption habits we practice each day. It's a very complex calculation that answers a straightforward question: how much of the Earth's resources do our lifestyles require?
The expression of the size of our individual or collective footprint is usually expressed in the number of planets we'd need to support our current lifestyles (hint: everyone reading this on a computer is assuredly above 1). It's a very widely-used measure, and is most useful as a way to take a small amount of information and apply it to a wider population.
Keep reading to learn how to define and determine ecological footprints.
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I think that its pretty sad how ppl who live 5 mins away from either school or work they have to get into their cars and drive there when CLEARLY they can just walk there in less time. and they r REDUCING this!!!! AND when ppl leave their door open when the heat is on! If its nice outside TURN UR HEAT OFF IF UR GOING TO OPENING THE DOOR AND LEAVING IT ON! Pick up ur garbage!!!!!
Cassie
Good article,
I really liked the map/diagram showing which countires have the larger carbon footprint.....
of course the US is almost the biggest, lol.
but yeah,
very intresting stuff.
i think people should shut off the water when they are brushing their teeth, its just a waste of water otherwise.