Journal 4: My Carbon Footprint

 
I went to sustainability.publicradio.org to find out my carbon footprint.  I took a carbon footprint quiz last year, but did not remember what score I had received. I thought it was going to be a multiple choice quiz like last years, but I was surprised to see that this quiz was completely different. This carbon footprint quiz let us make our own character. After making our character, we were able to choose our house, and then we were able to input all of our information about our houses. I put in information about my home and not my college dorm. I figured I should do the quiz on my house since I live there for the majority of the year. I was shocked to see my results for the carbon footprint quiz! My results said “Those eco-friendly choices have you headed in the right direction! The bad news? You’re still a long way from sustainable. It would take multiple Earths to support a planet living you lifestyle.” I scored the worst in “food and drink” with seven points. In “shopping habits” I had a total of five points, and my third highest was “home” with a total of four points. I realized that I may not have done everything I could to live sustainably, but I didn’t realize how bad it actually was. I could definitely use a lifestyle change, because if everyone were to live like me it would take 4.4 planet Earths to sustain everyone. I know that the fact that my house has solar panels helped me to have a lower score. My family also carpools with friends, and we are even starting to use energy efficient light bulbs. These are only a few minor changes in our life style, but it has helped our electric bills. So, I know it has also helped us to move to a more sustainable lifestyle. I know that being able to live sustainably is a ongoing effort. After taking this quiz, I am going to try and make more lifestyle changes to help live sustainably. The next step that I am going to take is to try and set up recycling in my house. It may be a tiny change in our household, but I will be curious to see my carbon footprint next year after making more changes to my life and home, to see if these little changes have helped.
This is the link to the game that shows you your carbon footprint:

http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/consumerConsequences.html