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Assignment I-1
MY ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
(Individual Assignment worth 10 pts) DUE AT THE START OF CLASS ON TUESDAY SEP 1, 2009 printer friendly format: (Word doc) or (pdf )
Click here for the GRADING RUBRIC for this assignment. Don't know what a rubric is? Click here to find out.
In this assignment
you will become familiar with the concept of the Ecological
Footprint, calculate your own Footprint, compare it with the
average Footprint of another country, and estimate what your
future Footprint might be.
About the
Redefining Progress Ecological Footprint Quiz:
SOURCE:
http://www.myfootprint.org/en/about_the_quiz/what_it_measures/
“The Ecological Footprint
Quiz estimates the area of land and ocean required to support your
consumption of food, goods, services, housing, and energy and assimilate
your wastes.”
Your ecological footprint
is expressed in "global hectares" (gha) or "global acres" (ga), which
are standardized units that take into account the differences in
biological productivity of various ecosystems impacted by your
consumption activities. Your footprint is broken down into four
consumption categories: carbon
(home energy use and transportation),
food, housing, and
goods and services. Your
footprint is also broken down into four ecosystem types or biomes:
cropland, pastureland, forestland, and marine fisheries.”
PART I.
Complete the following Background
Go to the Redefining Progress
website and read:
£
What
it Measures
http://www.myfootprint.org/en/about_the_quiz/what_it_measures/
£
Ecological
Footprint FAQ
http://www.myfootprint.org/en/about_the_quiz/faq/
PART
II. Answer the
following questions, based on the
What It Measures webpage:
1. (1 pt)
What is the average world
citizen’s (per capita) Ecological Footprint?
______
(in global hectares )
________ (in acres –
calculate this)
_____
(in “Earth’s needed”)
2.
(0.5 pt).
By what percent is humanity currently exceeding (overshooting)
the biosphere’s ecological
capacity? _____
[ NOTE: you can find the answer to #2
on the
What It Measures link, but be sure you understand where the
answer came from, i.e. how was it calculated mathematically??
This is a good “math practice” self
test!! ]
PART III.
Use the
Ecological Footprint Calculator
at http://www.myfootprint.org/
to calculate your OWN Footprint.
HINT:
IMPORTANT:
AS YOU TAKE THE QUIZ KEEP TRACK OF THE VALUES YOU ENTER
(for use in #4)
[Hints: You can calculate your Footprint
for your current residence (e.g. ,for dorm, apartment -- measure
or estimate your living square
footage) or for your permanent family residence( phone home to help with
the info!) Google up help on
other items, e.g. to estimate air
travel, try:
http://www.webflyer.com/travel/milemarker/ , to estimate the size of
a lot in the City of Tucson see:
http://www.ci.tucson.az.us/planning/codes/luc/zonecht1.pdf
(7000 sq ft is the minimum lot size for a single family
residence, zoned R-1, for larger areas in acres or square feet, think in
terms of what % of a
football field the lot would fill and see the following link for help:
http://www.gigfoot.net/faq/100.html
Use your browsing skills to help you make any other estimates
you may need. A useful tool for converting values from one type of
unit to another is
MegaConverter2
http://www.megaconverter.com/mega2/
]
When completed, print out the results sheet from your
first Footprint Quiz,
write your NAME on it, and staple it
to your assignment when you turn it in.
3.
(0.5 pt).
Based on your results, what is
your current Ecological Footprint?
______ (in acres) ______
(in “Earth’s”)
What is the “Country
Average” Footprint for the
USA?
______ (in
acres) ______
(in “Earth’s”)
4.
(1 pt)
Write a paragraph
comparing your Footprint with
the Country Average
Footprint for the USA.
5. (0.5 pt). Start the quiz again and pick another country, but enter in the SAME VALUES for your Footprint as you did for #3 (when you selected the U.S. as your country). The Results Page will show you how your Footprint values compare to the average of the country you’ve selected if you lived there instead of the USA. You do NOT need to print out the results page of this quiz; print only the results of the first quiz you took (i.e., your original Footprint).
[Note, however, that your re-calculated
footprint will be
weighted
by the average values of the county you have selected, hence in
countries where the average footprint is much lower than the US, your
re-calculated footprint will come out much lower than it did in #3.
See the
Quiz's FAQ
question:
What is the general methodology for calculating my footprint?
For an explanation of how the footprint is calculated in each country.]
Country
selected: ________________ Country’s Average Footprint:
______ (in
acres)
______ (in “Earth’s”
)
(In your
paragraph compare the two in
terms of: (i) total global acres, (ii) global acres by consumption
category, and (iii) Earth's
needed).
7.
(2 pts)
Speculate on why the country in which a person resides makes such a
difference in the individual's Footprint.
8. (0.5 pt). Evaluate your future Ecological Footprint. Recalculate your own Footprint using answers you predict will reflect your life in 5 to 10 years (bigger income, larger home, kids(?), more travel, etc. etc.) – Try to be realistic!! You do NOT need to print out the results page of this quiz; print only the results of the first quiz you took (i.e., your original Footprint.)
What is your estimated future Footprint?
______ (in acres) ______
(in “Earth’s” needed)
9.
(2 pts)
Briefly describe your predicted changes in lifestyle.
Do they increase or decrease your
Footprint? In which
categories? How and why?
Finally,
do you know what FORMAT this homework assignment should be in before you
submit it?
(The answer to
this is in FAQ #12, along with other information and
policies about how the course operates.)
10.
(1 pt)
To wrap up this assignment, do the following:
(a)
Carefully read the online
SYLLABUS
&
FAQ, to
learn all the COURSE POLICIES,
along with other useful information that will help you have a successful
semester. Also read the
University of Arizona Code of Academic Integrity if you have not
already done so. There’s important material in there about your rights
as a student, along with the “prohibited conduct” type information, so
it’s wise to be aware of what it says.
(b)
Use the
PRACTICE SELF TEST ON THE
SYLLABUS & COURSE POLICIES FAQ in D2L to test your understanding of
the information and policies in the SYLLABUS and FAQ
(c)
When you are ready, take the corresponding
PRACTICE READINESS QUIZ (RQ) ON
THE SYLLABUS & FAQ AND ACCEPTANCE OF COURSE POLICIES.
You may take it as
many times as you need until you
get a perfect score of 7 out of 7
(100%).
(The last two questions on the RQ
indicate that you have read and understood our Course Policies and the
University of Arizona's Code of Academic Integrity and hereby agree to
conduct yourself in this course according to the standards upheld by
them.)
In order to get credit for Question #10 of this Assignment, you will
need to submit the RQ with a perfect score of 7/7 (100%) by no later
than midnight at the end of the day on Thursday September 3rd.
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