CHM 110 - CHEMISTRY AND ISSUES IN THE ENVIRONMENT

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Ecological Footprint

 

 

Calculate your Ecological Footprint - After the program loads use your cursor to point at the U.S. and then slide on English. Goes through several screens with default settings which you can change with pull down menus. Report how many acres and planets that you need to support your lifestyle if everyone in the worl lived as you do.

 

Simple Ecological Calculator with pull down menues that calculates with each change that you make on the bottom of the screen.
Report how many acres and planets that you need to support your lifestyle. This is a good one to see instantly how slight changes can effect the footprint.

Personal Environmental Impact Calculator -

 

Natural Resources per person in selected countries

It's just not a baby, but a Super consumer

 

 

 

The Most Harmful Consumer Activities:

From the Union of Concerned Scientists

Cars and Light Trucks :

The manufacture and, more important, the use of consumers' vehicles cause more
environmental damage--especially air pollution and global warming --than any other single
consumer spending category.

Meat and Poultry:

Meat and poulter production requires large amounts of water and causes 20 percent of the
common (as opposed to toxic) water pollution related to consumer expenditure. It also
uses a significant share of the nation's land--800 million acres for grazing livestock and an
additional 60 million acres to grow animal feed. Red meat causes especially hight amounts
of environmental damage for the nutrition it delivers.

Fruit, Vegetables, and Grains:

Irrigated crops grown to meet consumer demand use an enormous quantity of water (30
percent of consumer-related water use). pesticides and fertilizers cause 5 percent of
consumer-related toxic water pollution. Food crops also use substantial amounts of land.

 

Household Appliances and Lighting Electricity seems clean and nonpolluting
when it's used in the home, but most of it is generated by burning polluting fossil
fuels, especially coal. Appliances and lighting are responsible for 15 percent of the
greenhouse-gas emissions related to consumer expenditures and 13 percent of
consumer-related common air pollution.

 

Home Heating, Hot water, and Air Conditioning:

Cooling and heating homes and water has an impact on global warming and air
pollution similar to that of appliances and lighting. Systems that rely on
electricity or oil contribute heavily to both problems. Most fireplaces and wood
stoves are especially high air polluters.

 

Home Construction:

The land and wood used for new home s are responsible for about a quarter of
consumers' impact on wildlife and natural ecosystems. Six percent of
consumer-related water pollution comes from manufacturing the materials for
new homes and disturbing the soil during construction.

Household Water and Sewage:

Despite advances in sewage treatment, municipal sewage remains a major source
(around 11 percent) of water pollution, especially affecting coastal areas and
estuaries. Interestingly, households' home water use is only 5 percent of th total
compare d with nearly 74 percent for food production and distribution.