My Impact on the Earth

We, as a class, have been identifying our impacts on the Earth and how much damage we cause to it.  We each made lists in class that would contain up to 100 items that would be the only items we would ideally live with.  I was able to cut my list off at 89 items with just a few unnecessarily items.

The next challenge we had, was to count, as accurately as we could, every single item we owned.  Making sure I checked every room in the house, I made a close estimate of 4800 give or take 100 items.  I was rather surprised because I would never have imagined have anywhere near that many items.  It is amazing to see how easily items build up!

Following this, we formed small groups and mapped the impact of different products.  My group researched Compact Disks (CDs) which, surprisingly, contain many nasty chemicals.  I have learned that CDs use a lot of resources unnecessarily and require processing of many different materials throughout the world.  I major thing that I will take away from this is that for as nice as CDs are, they are, at this point, not necessary and should be replaced by newer technology.

The latest thing we did was to take an Ecological Footprint survey, which gave you a rate which stated that if everyone lived your lifestyle, the human race would require so many Earths to maintain it.  To my surprise, I was rated at 5.09 Earths.  This showed me that despite all the things I try to do to help the Earth, it is still very far off from what needs to be done.  This is definitely encouraging me to go greener that I am right now.  The quiz can be taken here.

Update on our Collaborative Consumption Project

Since we have started this project, it has definatly shown me all of the waste in our school. But, better yet, it has shown me that we can start to make a difference, as shown by the responce from ideas with the school store.

One of the big things I have learned is that the students are not closed to the idea of recycling, but just need a little more encouragement. This shows me that not only are these students are not the stereotypical, not caring teenagers.

As a team member of the Collaborative Consumption, I can confidently say that I have contributed the idea of trading in unused supplies at the school store and I am the webmaster of out Collaborative Consumption website. Unfortunately, because of the school web control, I am currently unable to access the website to update/add to/maintain it. Once our website is allowed to be accessed again, I will be able to upload the new data that was collected by my classmates about teachers' wants and unneeded materials.

At this point, I believe that I will keep Collaborative Consumption with me. Although I have always recycled and usually purchase used items instead of new, I will see what I can do to further embrace Collaborative Consumption. Perhaps I can even encourage others to adopt the ideals of Collaborative Consumption through my example.

To go to our Collaborative Consumption website, click here.  (Please note that since our site is currently blocked by our school, it may not be up to date as of right now.)