What is an ecological footprint? It is a measure of what kind of mark you leave on the environment during your life. Factors that determine how large your footprint is includes how many energy efficient appliances you use, how much you drive, and how much you eat and what you eat. The goal should be to leave as small a foot print as possible.

According to the Ecological Footprint Quiz, we need 1.5 Earths to live sustainably. Unfortunately, we don't have an extra 1/2 Earth just lying around. The Ecological Footprint Quiz calculates how many Earths we would need if everyone lived like you. When we did this quiz together as a class, everyone's foot print was much larger than the world's average. I retook the quiz and examined why our classes average foot print was so large.

I believe that an important factor that enlarged our footprints was the location of where we live. Much of Fairfax County is covered by suburban housing developments where the residents are unable to walk much further than to their neighbors' houses. Even if the distance to the nearest store is short, there are busy roads that need to be crossed, making the walk too impractical and often dangerous.

Fairfax County is very wealthy compared to other areas. Excess money in the bank account, depending on the person, can lead to the replacement of items that don't necessarily need to be replaced. The old objects are simply thrown away, creating more waste. Being able to afford gas causes people to rely too much on their cars. In areas where fuel is more expensive and people have less money, people tend to be more aware of how often they have to fill up. A few years ago, there was a sudden spike in the price of oil. During that time, people were afraid to drive and planned trips to the grocery store much more carefully. In contrast, this past year the price of gas in the area dropped below $2.00 per gallon. I was in the car with a friend and we didn't really have anything to do. He suggested driving around until we thought of something to do and I reminded him what a waste of gas that was. He replied, "That's ok, gas is cheap right now." Luckily I had enough sense to know that money wasn't the most important reason for not wasting gas and told him to pull over and turn off the engine. Imagine if everyone thought that way. The price of oil, as much as people complain about it, is not nearly high enough when you take into account the destruction of the environment burning fossil fuels causes and the thought of completely running out of oil is devastating. Unfortunately it appears to be inevitable that eventually our oil supplies will be depleted. Everyone needs to be doing everything they can to preserve what we have left while scientists are working on alternative energy sources. After all, if we run out of oil sooner than we can find another energy source, how will those scientists drive to work to fix the problem we've gotten ourselves into?

The destruction of the Amazon rainforest is often blamed on paper use and the harvesting of lumber. People often try to do their best not to waste paper, thinking they're helping to slow down the rate of deforestation. Don't get me wrong, every little thing that preserves our Earth is helpful. However, many of these people leave their desks, after writing as much as possible on a single sheet of paper, and head off to lunch to have a hamburger. The primary reason for deforestation in the Amazon area is the vast amount of land that is used for cattle grazing. I used to believe people followed a vegetarian diet because they felt guilty that an animal had to die so they can eat. In my mind, humans are omnivores and were designed to eat both meat and veggies. Other animals eat meat, so why can't people? It wasn't until taking Environmental Science that I learned how much the consumption of meat damages the environment. When trees are cut down to make room for cattle, more carbon dioxide is allowed to be built up in the atmosphere. In addition, the transportation of food burns large amount of fossil fuels and energy is used keeping the food fresh for the long trip to the grocery store. Pesticides are also used in the preservation of these foods, which contributes to water pollution. Switching to a vegetarian diet consisting of organic, locally grown produce can go a long way in the effort to reduce your ecological footprint.