Check your sustainable
score below, the more footprints you score, the less sustainable you are.
YOUR RESULTS
1. a) 3 footprints b) 1 footprint c) 5 footprints
Current estimates say that by 2300 we will have used up the known stores of fossil fuels. It is true that we might find more, but we also need to think about the consequences of burning fossil fuels like coal and gas, and to look at other ways of producing energy. Can you think of any?
2. a) 1 footprint b) 3 footprints c) 5 footprints
Cars use petrol, which produces substances that are damaging to the ozone layer. A layer crucial to the world’s survival as we know it.
3. a) 1 footprint b) 3 footprints c) 5 footprints
Our landfill sites are increasing by the day and many types of packaging are either non-recyclable in this country or we don’t recycle them. Try to buy products with little packaging, go for paper rather than plastic because its biodegradable. If we all crush cartoons and packets before putting them in the rubbish we would considerably reduce the volume of Britain’s rubbish.
4. a) 5 footprints b) 1 footprint c) 3 footprints
Genetically Modified (GM) crops are those which have had their genetic structures altered to be able to be resistant to pests and pesticides, to develop new drugs as well as new energy sources. However, the science is fairly new and people do not know what will happen if we meddle with nature. Seed companies use genetic engineering to develop seeds which do not automatically reproduce (like normal plants) and which are only compatible with herbicides and pesticides produced by the same company. Practices like this further impoverish Third World farmers and increase the profits of large agrobusinesses. Consumers in Europe are becoming increasing concerned about GM foods. The EU is revising its guidelines on releasing GM organisms into the environment.
5. a) 5 footprints b) 1 footprint c) 5 footprints
Fair trade means that the people in other countries who make the product are fairly treated and receive a fair wage for the work they do. Although this may seem like common sense to you, people in the third world are often treated very badly and paid as little as £0.05 per day! Buy food marked ‘fair trade’ to ensure that the people who made it were treated as you would like to be, these now include chocolate, tea, coffee and bananas, look for the sticker!
6. a) 5 footprints b) 1 footprints c) 3 footprints
The average Briton uses 350 litres of water a day - compare this with Africa where the average use per person is 47 litres a day, and Asia where it is 85 litres a day. In the USA however, the average person uses 578 litres of water a day! In fact, it takes 5000 litres of water just to process the production of one quarter-pounder burger, fries and a drink! In the UK and USA, we can afford to be wasteful because we have enough clean water to use, in developing countries people sometimes live miles away from the nearest water supply, and even then it is not always clean. Dirty water is the main way in which disease is spread in the developing world.
7. a) 1 footprint b) 3 footprints c) 5 footprints
If you don’t have decent recycling facilities in your area you can do something about it! Write to your MP! Until then use the facilities you do have as often as you can. Its not just paper, plastic and food waste…give your old clothes to charity, as well as TVs and other electrical equipment that still works. We live in a throw away society and we shouldn’t!!!!!!
So how sustainable are you? If you got more than 21 footprints, you need to improve your sustainability. Perhaps you could write a list in your group of things you and your family can do to make less of a footprint on the world. If you got under 15 footprints, your lifestyle is pretty sustainable. Think of ways you can help and encourage others - make people aware of the reasons for thinking about the extent of our ecological footprint.
The most
important thing to remember is that you can make a difference! A little goes
a long way and if everyone does a little think what a change we can make!
So think about what you are doing, dry your clothes on the washing line if
its sunny and not in the tumble dryer, don’t leave lights/the tv/ the radio
on when you are not using them, recycle as much as you can, it doesn’t take
much. YOU CAN DO IT!