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Map of Stanley Park

Close-up Map of Stanley Park (with driving directions to SPES)

Discover Your Impact

Part of discovering and protecting our local natural environment is knowing what kind of effect we have on it. Do you want to find out what your impact is?

footprints

One way to find out is to discover your ecological footprint.  Your ecological footprint is much bigger than the footprint that you make with your feet. An ecological footprint is how much space, or how much land you need to survive.

You might think that the amount of land you need only includes where you live, where you play, and where you go to school.  But it really is much bigger, because it includes the land where the food you eat is grown, where your garbage goes, and much, much more.

Almost everything humans do uses a whole lot of space!

How Big is Your Footprint?

footprints Think about your actions for the past day
footprints Choose one answer to each question
footprints Add up your footprint score!
 

Transportation:
How did I travel today?  Think about each time you went somewhere...

I drove in a car
I took a bus
I rode my bike
I walked

Water Use:
How much water did I use?

I did not shower
I had a shower for 1-2 minutes
I had a shower for 3-6 minutes
I had a shower for 7-10 minutes
I bathed in a full tub
I bathed in a half-full tub
 
When I brushed my teeth:
 
I let the water run the whole time
I turned off the tap
 
When I use the toilet:
 
I flush every time
I use a low-flow toilet or put a 1 litre plastic container full of water or rocks to displace water in the toilet, so each flush uses less water
I sometimes let the "yellow mellow," especially if other people will be using the toilet soon (i.e. first thing in the morning and before bed time)

Clothing:
I am wearing:

Only brand new clothes
Some second-hand or hand-me-down clothing
Almost all second-hand or hand-me-down clothing

Play:
In the sports and games I like to play, the equipment I need is:

A lot (full jersey and pads, computers, etc.)
Not so much (balls, hoops, game boards etc.)
None or very little
 
This much land was made into a field, arena, pools, ski slopes and parking lots for the sports and games I like to play:
Lots (more than the area of a football field)
Some (about the area of a football field)
None or very little
 
In general, I spend this much money a day on recreational activities:
$20 or more
$10
$5

Food:
When I eat a meal there is this much left on my plate:

Half of the food there was to begin with
A bit of the food
I clean my plate
 
In a typical day, I eat meat:
At every meal
At one or two meals
Never
 
In my lunch, this much food is wrapped in paper or plastic that I throw away:
All of it
Some of it
None of it

School:
When my class leaves the classroom for recess or another activity we turn off the lights:

Never
Sometimes
Always
 
My classroom recycles:
Nothing
Some paper
All of our paper, cans, and drink boxes
 

My Ecological Footprint Score is:

So What?

The average person in Canada has an ecological footprint of 4.3 hectares (a footprint score of about 430). This means that each person in Canada uses more land than 6 football fields to live because of all the things that we use and buy!

There are only 8.9 billion hectares of land on earth that people can grow food on and live on.

Three Earths

If all the people in the world (about 6 billion people) needed the same amount of space that Canadians use, we would need THREE PLANET EARTHS to support everybody.

We all know that there is only one planet Earth.

People who live in North America are using up more than our fair share of natural resources and space.

Take some small steps!

Your footprint score is not your actual ecological footprint, but it can give you an idea of where your impact on the earth is coming from.

It also gives you a chance to try and lower you score!

Write down three things you can do to make your footprint smaller. Make those changes and find out if your score becomes smaller!

Information Sources:

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