Things you can do to help:
1. Reduce waste. Anything you use took energy to make or process, and energy to transport it to you, and at least some of that energy was probably from fossil fuels like coal and oil. So, the less you waste, and thus the less you use, the less energy is used on your behalf
2. Drive less. Walk, take a bus, or ride your bike when you can to visit friends or go to work or school, instead of driving or having someone drive you. When you do have to drive somewhere, see if you can arrange a carpool so that fewer cars are needed, and/or arrange to do all your driving in one trip.
3. Buy environmentally friendly things. Buy recycled, buy local, buy "green". Not every "green" thing really is better for the environment (sometimes it's just a marketing gimmick), but if you're intelligent and careful, you can reduce your environmental impact by buying things that were made from re-used materials, or didn't have to be transported as far, or that are made with readily renewable resources like most plant fibers. Doing any of those things will tend to reduce the environmental impact of your purchases.
4. Learn more, and share with others. You may not be able to do the "big" things yourself (like set government policy, or switch the power company to renewable energy sources), but you can learn about them. And once you have learned about them, you can write letters, and get your friends to write letters, urging the relevant people (your government representatives, the power company, and so forth) to take appropriate action.
things the government could do:
1. Institute a carbon tax, or some other "price" on carbon (cap and trade, etc). If things that use fossil fuels are more expensive than things that don't, people will naturally/rationally use fewer fossil fuels, without the government having to micromanage things like behavior or consumer products
2. Build, or allow and encourage others to build, carbon-neutral power plants, including nuclear. Until we get much better energy storage, there's no real way that solar and wind power, 2 of the main renewable energy sources, can generate "baseline" (eg always available) power, so we'll need biofuel and/or nuclear reactors to take up the slack.
3. Fund research. Better batteries or other forms of energy storage, car engines that run off of renewable fuels, and so on, could all allow us to reduce our carbon footprints without having to significantly damage our quality of life. The more money going into research, the sooner we will get these things.
You've three or four really good answers already - good enough to fully answer the question. Sorry, no, I don't know a really good website. There are so some good & not so good calculators out there, but I'd love to find a good website which described in a nice way how our EF is made up and what we can do to reduce it.
Hopping on one foot might be very useful if the Government does it while it announces that it is going to take the Evoligical Footprint seriously.
Seriously, if everyone is laughing at the senior elected officials hopping around and falling over, making fools of themselves, the electorate might find it possible to take on board that our use of "Ecological Space" is really extremely, extrenely, inefficient. They / We might also see the funny side of using less of everything, working less, having more fun outdoors, being generally more intelligent about how we live. We might discover that you can get on a bus or train and actually talk to a stranger without them intruding on your personal space, or being wierd; most people are very respectful one to one and nearly everyone I meet has a most amazing story If I give them a chance to tell it. Cars and tv have high ecological footprints but are also socially isolating and quite negative influences, and our quality of life might very wl improve without things like that,
One idea I've been looking at recently that wasn't mentioned im the other answers is the idea of a "One Planet Zone" This is a group of people, organisations or Countries who agree between them to respect a "One Planet" footprint. As a resident of an overdeveloped country (uk) there is little I can do to reduce my personal footprint as there is such a large shared social footprint and I'm part if society. So my idea is to agree with a few Indian guys who have less than a fair share footprint to work to meet in middle.
This little "One planet zone" could then do stuff like create its own money, trade selected high tech stuff with low impacts, or set up teaching centres to promote Global systems thinking and Local low impact Doing, and it could connect with similar zones formed on the same principle to eliminate unsustainable behaviour.
These zones are scaleable, so the UK Government for example could contract with a variety of other Governments to create a sustainable trade foundation, designed to reduce trade to the most appropriate level as defined by its ecological impact vs value delivered.
An ecological footprint is a tool that measures the area of land and water required to produce the natural resources consumed by the human population. It helps to measure sustainability at the global, national or individual level.
Currently, the world is living in an ecological deficit, which simply means that our demand for natural resources exceeds the supply or regenerative capacity of the earth. To sustain our resource consumption rate at its present-day level we would need more than one planet!
Follow these steps to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. Additional ways to reduce your ecological footprint are also available.
1. Reduce your carbon footprint.
Walk, bike or take public transit
Choose energy efficient appliances
Purchase carbon offsets
2. Reduce your housing footprint.
Use biodegradable, non-toxic cleaning products
Compost
3. Reduce your goods and services footprint.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
1.Don't drive when there is an alternative – use public transport, cycle or walk
On average we can reduce our total ecological footprint by as much as 20 per cent if we don't own and drive a car. Using it less will reduce your footprint.
2.Grow vegetables and don't waste food
Combining these actions could reduce our footprint by 11%. Growing our own fruit and vegetables reduces all the energy and waste which normally goes into getting food from the field to our plates – such as transport, refrigeration and packaging.
3.Instead of flying, take holidays vacations near you. Flying has an even greater impact on climate change than was previously thought, flying has 2 to 4 times the impact of CO2 emissions on climate change because it releases water vapour and nitrous oxide at high altitude.
4.If you need a car make it a small one and reduce the mileage
Walking, cycling or taking public transport instead will help reduce congestion and carbon dioxide emissions and will also reduce our overall footprint. Many people are discovering the benefits of public transport. In the last 10 years the distance travelled on London buses has increased by 37%. The distance travelled by rail has increased by 34%.
5.Instead of buying new things buy second-hand, or borrow
On average 10% of our footprint is made up of the things we buy. Our houses are often cluttered with items we only use or wear a few times. The average drill is used for just 15 minutes in its lifetime.
6.Make your home energy efficient – insulation, double glazing
This tip is common sense and one of the simplest to follow. We all want pleasant warm homes so why do we persist in living in homes that rapidly lose heat through uninsulated walls and roof and are draughty? Improving your home's insulation, which can be quick and easy, will normally repay the cost in reduced energy bills within a few years.
7.Turn the thermostat down
By turning down your thermostat by just one degree you could cut your heating bills by 10% turning it down by four degrees could save the average home 5% of their total ecological footprint.
8.Vegetarian diet
The ecological footprint of vegetarians who eat a moderate amount of milk and eggs could be 40% lower than their counterparts who consume a low-meat diet.
9.Buy locally produced organic food
In the UK, we import more than half of the food we consume. Buying locally-grown, seasonal food would mean we could reduce our food miles and use less packaging to preserve fresh produce. Food that has been transported half way around the world can never have a small footprint, although its impact can sometimes be lower than intensively produced local food. A bonus is that the freshest food – unprocessed, locally grown and in season – is also food with a low footprint.
10.Recycle everything
The average UK home throws away over one tonne of materials every year. Avoid overpackaged products when shopping. Donate unwanted items to charity shops. Use your kerbside recycling collection and find out where you can recycle items that are not collected.
Waste reduction and being less dependent to our modern day machinery may help lessen our carbon footprint.
By caring and sharing and making awareness.
Hop on one foot.
find a nice cave
doing a geo summative and i need 3 things the government can do and 4 things i can do. does any one know any good websites?
