(b) What activities are examined to calculate a person s Ecological Footprint (EF)?

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1 Grade 9 Geography Unit 1 Lesson 10 Ecological Footprint Use your textbook Making Connections (Pages 473+) to answer the following questions 1. (a) Define ecological footprint. (b) What activities are examined to calculate a person s Ecological Footprint (EF)? 2. What is the EF of an average Canadian? 3. Your EF is not one piece of land, since you rely on products that come from around the world. Your EF really consists of a great many small pieces of land in different places that would add up to 4.27 hectares. Give an example of your ecological footprint that would be i) in your local community ii) in a nearby part of Canada iii) in a distant part of Canada iv) in a foreign country 4. How much productive land would be needed to provide for all of the people of Canada? 4.27ha by Canada s population of 32 million. 5. Is there enough productive land in Canada to support our current population? Canada has about ha of productive land. Compare this number to your answer to question 4 and determine the size of the surplus or deficit of productive land. 6. (a) Define carrying capacity. (b) Calculate Canada s carrying capacity by dividing the total amount of productive land (see statistic in #5) by 4.27ha. How many people could Canada support? 7. (a) Consider the following: On our Earth, there are about 8,633,000,000 ha of productive land and about 6,000,000, 000 people in the world. Divide the land by the people to see what each person would be entitled t, if the world s resources were divided evenly. (b) How does this compare to the share of an average Canadian? 8. (a) Calculate the Earth s carrying capacity, assuming that everyone lived at the average Canadian s standard of living. To do this, divide the amount of productive land on the Earth (see statistic in #7) by Canada s average ecological footprint. (b) What does this mean? 9. Reducing our EF would require reducing our consumption. Do you think you could maintain your happiness while significantly reducing your consumption? What would that mean for you? 10. Do you think that all of the people in the world have the right to enjoy a standard of living similar to that of the average Canadian? Would you be willing to reduce your own EF to allow this to happen?

2 Grade 9 Geography Unit 1 Lesson 10 Calculating your Ecological Footprint We have explored the concept of Ecological Footprint. We understand that it is a measure of a person s impact on the natural environment expressed in terms of area of land. We also know there are five general factors (e.g., housing, food, transportation) that, when combined, provide the total Ecological Footprint value. A component of housing, for example, is the total amount of CO 2 produced to operate a house (e.g., operate all appliances, heat water, provide air conditioning) expressed as the equivalent number of trees to absorb the CO 2 emissions and calculated as the area of land needed to grow that number of trees. Finally, we were presented with the 1999 average Canadian Ecological Footprint of 4.27 ha. Do you ever wonder what you exact Ecological Footprint value is? Complete the following table to discover your impact. Transportation How did you travel today? Mode Day 1 Walk 0 Bicycle 5 Public Transit 10 Got a Drive 15 Car 30 Day 2 Day 3 Total Total by Water Use How much water did you use? Use Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total Times No Shower minutes minutes minutes 20 Bath 20 Total Times Used by Clothing Are you wearing the same clothes today that you wore yesterday? Category Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total Most 0 None 10 Clothing 50% of my clothes are second-hand Total by

3 Category Yes 0 No 20 Clothing Did you wear something that had been mended? Category Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total Clothes Needed Mending I did the mending -5-5 Total by Recreation Consider the games, sports and activities you participated in during your day. How much equipment did you need to participate? Category Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total Total by Recreation How much land was converted to playing fields, ice rinks, swimming pools, gym space, ski runs, etc. to meet your recreation needs? Category Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total Recreation How much money did you spend? Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total One Point for each Dollar Total by

4 Food How many portions of meat did you eat? Category Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total One portion 10 Two portions 20 Three portions 30 Food How much food did you leave on your plate? Category Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total Food Did you compost all scraps? Category Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total Yes 0 No 10 Food Is your food locally grown? Category Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total 0 None 10 Total by Total by Total by Total by

5 Food Was your food packaged in plastic or paper? Category Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total Some Total by Garbage If you were to take everything that you three in the garbage today and put it into the same container, what size of container would you need to hold it all? Category Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total Cup 5 Shoebox 20 Crate 30 Living Space Calculate the square metres the indoor space that your spend time in including your house, school and anywhere else you spent time (e.g., friend, grandparents/ (Note: 10 square feet is about 1 m 2 ). Category m 2 Number of People m 2 / Number of People Home School Others TOTAL GRAND TOTAL of all. Convert your GRAND TOTAL into your personal Ecological Footprint for the last three days and dividing Grand Total by 100. Thus, Grand Total / 100 = Your Ecological Footprint. Your estimated Ecological Footprint Ecological Footprint