Energy Lesson 8 : Leaving Smaller Footprints

All human beings place some stress on the Earth’s systems because we use energy and other resources to meet our basic needs and improve our material standard of living. Modifying energy and product choices and using pollution prevention strategies to minimize the stress on the Earth’s resources is a first step toward developing a more sustainable lifestyle.

Sustainability is maintaining a resource or system so that it does not degrade. Sustainability also means considering all economic, environmental, and social costs and benefits of an activity, instead of only one type of cost. A sustainable society includes a healthy environment, social equity, and a strong economy. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future to meet its needs.

Ecological footprint is an estimate of the amount of land and sea needed to produce all of the food, materials, and energy a person consumes and disposal of all of their wastes. To be sustainable, the size of everybody’s ecological footprint must total less than the amount of usable land and sea on Earth. Calculating our ecological footprint is one way to assess how our society and personal habits impact the Earth and to evaluate the sustainability of our society.

Currently the consumption of energy and resources in the United States is much higher than in many other parts of the world. The United States has the largest per capita ecological footprint on the planet (Venetoulis et al., 2004). Current human activity within the Great Lakes basin watershed requires 8 times the air, land, and water that currently exist in the Great Lakes basin (Lickers, 2000). If everyone on Earth consumed energy and resources like the average American, it would take the resources of about four Earths (according to the Global Living Project web site) to meet that level of consumption. As the Earth’s population increases and more countries become industrialized, use of and competition for available resources and space will increase.

Reducing one’s ecological footprint does not necessarily mean reducing the quality of one’s life. It means being a good steward of the environment by protecting and managing the environment for future generations. It will mean using energy and resources more efficiently and wisely. A sustainable future depends on our personal choices and actions, the development of wise policies, the use of renewable energies, the development of new technologies, and the conservation of available resources. Assessing our environmental impacts is an important step toward stewardship of a sustainable environment.