Journal 4

Carbon Footprint
Each and every day I realize more and more that I may quite possibly live in the most wasteful country in the entire world. I don’t think it happened overnight but I believe that the waves of technology and how developed we are as a country have increased our wastefulness. Clearly steps have to be taken to change this.
When I took the carbon footprint quiz, it told me how many worlds it would take if everyone lived like me; I was told that it would take 4.6 Earths to sustain my living habits. From the averages it seemed that the more money people made the more earths they needed , except in my case. The issues were not with my housing, amount of electricity I use or the amount of waste I produce, which was on the fairly on the low side. The biggest contribution from me is the type of transportation I use, the food I eat and my shopping habits.
After taking this quiz I tried to think of ways for me to live a more sustainable life when it came to my transportation habits, it was hard coming up with ideas other then carpooling with my friends. Not to make excuses but the public transportation in the area where I live is not reliable enough for me to ensure that I get to every place I need to go. Then I thought I could ride my bike but the weather in Florida is about as predictable as who is going to win the lottery tomorrow, with the random scattered thunderstorms and, sun showers.
My shopping habits made the next big difference; I spend too much time in the mall buying useless stuff, which apparently just is polluting the world. I have been trying since I took the test to buy less things that I probably would not get any use out of.
My biggest use was the food that I consume. I have tried to limit the amount of fast food I eat just because it is bad for me but I feel for me to completely change up my habits I would have to eat organically grown food from local markets , which is hard to afford as a college student .
Overall I think finding out about my use of resources makes me a little more aware of what I can do to leave less of a mark on the world.