Everyone has an ecological footprint, whether you’re an adult or a baby. Everyone needs food, often has more than one set of clothing and you live somewhere. If we were still living like the Neanderthals back then, in the pure nature only clad with furs, then, yes then, one would really have a minimal ecological footprint. And no climate crisis. Yes, we humans love consumption, and we are getting more and more. Why only one child when you can have four or more. The more people, the more we trample our planet. To get an overview of your own damage to our earth, there are online tools for calculating your ecological footprint. Here it is stated how good, or mostly how bad you live. Below I can recommend two different websites to you. In each case, data such as housing situation, nutrition, consumption and mobility are included. And, tips are given on how to reduce the damage to nature could. For everyone, this is mobility, or often nutrition. So many groceries are carted halfway around the world, although we usually have great produce on-site in Central Europe. So the waiver also plays a role here, do you really have to enjoy a flight pineapple every week, or aren’t just a few pears and apples from the farmer on the outskirts enough?
Calculate your own ecological footprint
One of the two recommended online calculators for calculating the ecological footprint is www.footprintcalculator.org. If you’re not too fluent in English, this website is available in the following languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Another tool, with family more straightforward questions, and immediate results, can be found at ecologicalfootprint.com.
The result will probably surprise you. You are probably not aware of the corresponding CO2 emissions from specific actions and habits. And that is precisely why such tools are useful for informing how to make your lifestyle more sustainable. Because if you don’t know what to optimise, where should you even know where and how to start. This is also an excellent resolution for the coming year to live more sustainably and consciously. Give it a try!
Featured image via: staying at W Barcelona
