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Why Should You Reduce Your Ecological Foot Print 

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Why Should You Reduce Your Ecological Foot Print 

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There are multiple contributions to your ecological footprint; contributions that include: Energy Consumption, Food, Transportation, and Water Consumption. Unfortunately, that is just the tip of the iceberg when we have the mindset of reducing our ecological footprint. With that being said, what is an ecological footprint? A definition per Merriam Webster addresses an Ecological Footprint as, "the impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources."
Knowing what an ecological footprint is can be helpful but unfortunately that doesn't get the job done, one must put reducing their consumption into fruition. For example, recycling, reducing how long you take showers, carpooling, buying goods from local businesses or even growing your own goods, flipping the switch or maybe even installing solar panels if you want to go the extra mile. All of which, are simple and effective ways to lower your personal ecological footprint. If we all continue to lessen our individual ecological footprint, that can easily extend our potential "overshoot date"

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There are many ways to help reduce your ecological footprint when it comes to your transportation uses... one tactic you may use is maybe switching to an electric vehicle to help reduce the co2 emissions as it can lead to a variety number of problems that can include dramatic global warming and can be very harmful to the Earth and everyone in the community. Therefore, by switching to an electric vehicle it can give many benefits to the environment such as less pollution in the air (co2), less demands for fuel consumption, fuel costs and simply the demand that comes with it and if we were to switch to electric cars within the future not only would it be an advantage for the present but for many future generations to come and most importantly it would have a better long run in the end for the Earth if we continue to not only switch to electric cars but also to reduce how many times we may use transportation whether that be a day, week, month or year..

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Today in the United States more than 70% of the food we get is transported by truck. These trucks travel across the United States spreading harmful pollutants into the air that we breath. During this Eco-Footprint project, I have realized things are a little more complicated than they seem. For instance, buying strawberries from Walmart is not the same as buying strawberries from the local farmers market. The produce from Walmart travels much greater distances to reach our local stores which in turn leads so a larger eco-footprint. Also, something to be considered is the amount of energy being put into the food we consume. The amount of energy that goes into meat is colossal when compared to natural nuts, fruits, and vegetables. We must ask, is the food in its natural form or was it put though many different processing phases? The more a food is processed the more energy has been out into it. Lastly, we need to look into our handling energy use and find a way to reduce the current usage. 49.5% of the energy used in food production is used in the handling phase. This is the wrapping, packaging of our foods. Buying foods that are raw or minimalistic and that use recyclable materials will help lessen the eco-footprint.

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Trying to lessen our eco-footprint is nothing less than easy. Most of our favorite items help to make daily life easier. One way we can make the earths daily life easier is by reducing our electricity within our homes. A few ways to help lower your electricity and electric bill are by using ventilation in the home, have some energy-efficient window treatments done, turn off the AC or heater when away, use cold water whenever possible, in the summer air dry your clothes, and always check the seals on your fridge and freezer doors. This are the most basic ways to save energy and it makes a huge impact on the earth and for your wallet. Just by doing these easy steps you can help lower your own ecological footprint and help lower the CO2 emissions for your own house and have a huge impact on the world.

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You may ask yourself "what is water conservation?" well its quite a simple thing, water conservation is the practice of using water efficiently to reduce the unnecessary usage of water. Most individuals don't realize how much water they use in a day and most of their usage assumptions are completely off base.
Most everyday uses of water consist of: Toilet Flushes, Dishwasher Usage, Washing Machine runs, Running Faucets, Taking Baths/Showers and as simple as hand washing dishes.
Claiming to reduce the usage of water is quite simple until it actually comes into play but multiple ways I would request a peer to reduce their water usage would include: simply turning off the water when you're brushing your teeth or washing your face, installing a low-flow shower-head, start defrosting food in the fridge instead of running it under cold water or simply reducing the time you take showers. There are many ways to contribute to reducing the amount of water you use day to day but these are simple options.