Measuring Environmental Impact key

1. My ecological footprint = 21.6 acres.
2. My ecological footprint I hope to achieve by being more environmentally conscious: 14.6 . Briefly explain what changes you hope to make and how these changes will affect your standard of living.
  - Ride bicycle for short trips - takes longer and possibly more dangerous.
  - Use gray water to flush toilet - spouse may object.
  - Downsize my house - less space to live but less cleaning as well.
1. My family's estimated CO₂ footprint = 5.4 tons * 2 cars = 10.8 tons.
2. The class' estimated footprint = 5.4 tons * 24 * 2 = 259 tons.
3. By the year 2050, the global population is estimated to be about 10 billion people. Global ownership of motor vehicles is projected to be 0.4 motor vehicles per person. Assuming that CO₂ emissions will still be 5.4 tons per motor vehicle per year, compute the CO₂ footprint based on a population of 10 billion people.
  5.4 tons * 10,000,000,000 * 0.4 = 21.6 billion tons.
4. Why are climate scientists so concerned about CO₂ emissions?
  CO₂ is a greenhouse gas and excess CO₂ in the atmosphere may lead to climate change - global warming.
5. How can the environmental impact of CO₂ emissions from motor vehicles in 2050 be held to that of the year 2000?
  - reduce population to 1.75 billion, or
  - reduce motor vehicles per person from 0.1 to 0.07, or
  - reduce emissions per vehicle from 5.4 to 0.945.

Measuring ecological footprint with regards to land use

Country	Ecological footprint (acres/person)	Proportion relative to world average	Proportion relative to world land available
Bangladesh	1.2	1.2/6.9 = 0.17	1.2/4.9 = 0.24
Mexico	6.4	0.93	6.4/4.9 = 1.31
Sweden	14.6	2.12	2.98
U.S.	25.4	3.68	5.18
World average	6.9	6.9/6.9 = 1	6.9/4.9 = 1.4

Why is the ecological footprint for people living in Bangladesh so low?
Low income (affluence).
People living in Sweden enjoy a higher quality of life and longer life span than people in the U.S. Why is the ecological footprint of people living in Sweden less than that of people living in the U.S.?
Lifestyle choices affect our ecological footprints: Americans live in big houses and drive big cars.
Say 100,000 people were added to both the populations of the U.S. and Bangladesh. Which country would result in a relatively larger change in the ecological footprint? Briefly explain.
- Per capita footprint would not change.
- Per country footprint depends on population size:
  100 K / 300 M for U.S. is a .03% increase in population; total footprint increased from 7,620 M acres to 7,623 M. 100 K / 150 M for Bangladesh is a .07% increase in population; total footprint increased from 180 M acres to 180.12 M. So Bangladesh would experience a larger relative change.
- However, from a world perspective, the Earth would be in more deficit with more Americans: we would need 100 K * 25.4 = 2.54 M acres to support Americans rather than 100 K * 1.2 = 0.12 M acres for Bangladeshi.