LAB_Ecological Footprint_Synthesis Report-2
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LAB Ecological Footprint – Synthesis (30 pts)
OVERVIEW
This document contains the synthesis questions for the LAB Ecological Footprint assignment.
You will submit this document to the LAB Ecological Footprint Synthesis Canvas assignment
page. Before completing this submission please
review the
LAB Ecological Footprint Instructions and Background
document
complete the Ecological Footprint Calculator tool
complete LAB Ecological Footprint Quiz
Part 3. LAB Ecological Footprint - Synthesis
Section 1 – Ecological Footprint Calculator results and reflection
S1.1. Paste a screenshot of your Results page from the Ecological Footprint Calculator here. Delete
example image.
Must be large enough to read and match answer in Part 2 for credit. 2 pts.
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upload, or share any course information or assignment from or to another student or an online vendor, repository,
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Document last modified December 27
th
2021 by LR
S1.2. Paste a screenshot of your Detailed Results page from the Ecological Footprint Calculator here.
Delete example image.
Must be large enough to read and match answer in the Canvas quiz for credit. 2
pts.
S1.3. How does your footprint, particularly the most impactful categories (see screenshot above),
compare to your prior expectations about your environmental impact before you took the
quiz? In particular, how much does your carbon footprint or services contribute to your total
footprint? Provide specific examples. 3pts.
I took this test last year and my footprint was higher, so I am surprised that it has gone
down. After looking over the different sections and seeing what I rank the highest in, I am
surprised to see that mobility is not higher. I guess living on a college campus makes it
easier because I am either walking to wherever I need to go or driving no more than 5
miles. When I move back home during the summer, this part of my footprint is guaranteed
to increase. I also find it weird that food is one of my highest categories because I don’t
tend to eat a ton of food, but the food I eat is mainly meat and packaged products which
adds a lot to my footprint. My carbon footprint is the highest by far and that is something I
am also not so shocked about. Grazing land and fishing grounds are two of my lowest
because they aren’t something I am associated with as much.
Visit the GFN’s “Solutions” page. Read through it and explore the “Learn More” links for
City, Energy, Food, and Population.
S1.4. Based on the Solutions you read, what is one thing
you
, specifically, could do to reduce
your
ecological footprint in each of these four categories? Remember to write in your own
words. 3 pts.
a. City
For reducing my ecological footprint in the city, I could take public transportation
more places along with walk more places. This would then cause me to not drive as much
which would then prevent for more emissions to be put through the air we breathe.
2
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upload, or share any course information or assignment from or to another student or an online vendor, repository,
tutoring site, or quizzing site.
b. Energy
When dealing with energy use around me, I can make sure to turn the lights off
when I leave the room, along with unplugging items I am not currently using. I feel like
these are small things but doing them all day and everyday can add a huge impact overtime
not just for me but for other people who are also struggling with this.
c. Food
When trying to reduce my ecological footprint around the subject of food I will
try my best to buy less packaged food, brings my own bags to the grocery store, compost
more, and eat less processed foods. I think by doing all these things I will make a small
impact on our world, but I will also try my best to encourage the people around me to do
the same.
c. Population
In order to reduce my footprint when talking about population, I feel as if I
can air dry my clothes instead of putting them through the dryer, I can also provide others
with higher education on fertility and sex ed, along with creating clinics for free birth
control all over the world. This will create the population growth to possibly stay steady or
decline instead of it still drastically increasing.
Section 2 Graphing Ecological Footprint vs HDI and GDP
S2.1. Create a scatterplot of all nations’ per capita Ecological Footprint and their HDI.
Follow
the step-by-step guide in the Instructions and Background document as well as the
Demonstration available on Canvas.
Did you remember the axis titles and units?
In future labs we will ask you to include captions with all graphs and images that describes
the data or information it represents. All figures should include a caption to help your reader
understand the purpose of the image.
In this lab only we include a fill-in-the-blank model
to help you understand how to structure
a caption. For more guidance, see figures in your textbook and
LAB Instructions and
Background
document for examples of captions.
2 pts.
3
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upload, or share any course information or assignment from or to another student or an online vendor, repository,
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Caption for Scatterplot S2.1. 1 pt.:
Fill in the blanks to complete the caption.
National
[ecological
footpring]
in global hectares (gha) show a strong
[positive]
relationship with the national
[human
development index]
(HDI). This indicates that social development, such as medicine and education, has
historically occurred alongside a(n)
[increase]
in consumption of overall goods and services.
S2.2. Create a scatterplot that shows the relationship between all nations’ per capita Ecological
Footprint and their per capita GDP.
Did you remember the axis titles and units?
2 pts.
Caption for Scatterplot S2.2. 1 pts: Fill in the blanks to complete the caption.
National
[Ecological
footprint]
in global hectares (gha) show a strong
[positive]
relationship with the per capita
[gross
domestic product]
(GDP). This indicates that wealth as an indicator of economic development leads to
a(n)
[increase]
in consumption of overall goods and services.
Section 3 Drawing conclusions from data
Refer to the scatterplots you made above AND Figure 1 in the
LAB Instructions and
Background
answer each of the following questions.
S3.1. In general, what would you predict happens to a nation’s ecological footprint as it becomes
wealthier?
Refer to the graphs and refer to specific countries as examples to earn credit
3 pts.
I wish I could say that it would decline as our world gets wealthier, but I feel as if it is going to get higher.
This is due to the fact that there is going to be a higher demand for resources and people will start buying
more items they either don’t need or items they won’t benefit the earth as a whole. As you can see above,
as the GDP gets higher, the ecological footprint also tends to increase.
4
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upload, or share any course information or assignment from or to another student or an online vendor, repository,
tutoring site, or quizzing site.
S3.2 In general, what would you predict happens to a nation’s ecological footprint as it becomes
more socially developed (i.e., improved education, health care, etc.)?
Refer to the graphs and
refer to specific countries as examples to earn credit
3 pts.
As I said above, I think that the nations footprint will either stay the same or increase. Once again, there
will be a higher demand for these resources along with others and it won’t cause the footprint to go down
that much overall.
S3.3 Consider Figure 1 in the Lab Instructions and Background document and your answers in
questions S3.1 and 3.2 to answer the following question:
Sustainable development requires an ecological footprint of ‘1 Earth’ or less while also
meeting human development goals measured as HDI. Have any nations achieved a ‘
very
high level of social development
’ with HDI greater than 0.8
AND
have an
ecological
footprint within 1 Earth
? (Hint: In Figure 1 find the lower right hand box under the
dashed lines or sort by HDI in the data file).
Why do you think this is? Explain with references to the graphs and your answer above 4
pts
.
I have noticed that no nations have been able to achieve BOTH a level of HDI greater than 0.8
along with having an ecological footprint within 1 earth. I think that this is due to the fact
that higher level countries use factories, cars, and more resources to a greater extent than
smaller countries. In order for these nations to be so high ranked in HDI, these resources used
to create a higher footprint come into play. For example, the United States is so developed
because we have factories and more machinery that we use throughout our daily lives which
improves our social development but brings down our footprint. We need to be able to find a
happy medium under these circumstances and it’s something scientists and other
professionals have been trying to dial down.
Section 4 – A global fair share
S4.1. To achieve sustainability, the UN proposes that we must both reduce the footprints of
wealthy nations while allowing the footprints of developing nations to increase. Keeping in mind
the relationships among Ecological Footprint, Biocapacity, and Socioeconomic status, consider
the following scenarios. Note that these are two ends of a spectrum from a global collectivist to a
nationalist view.
Global Fair Share:
Everyone in the world should abide by a global “fair share”, with
nations consuming similar amounts – estimated at 1.7 gha per person. In this case, those
in wealthy nations would have to consume much less than they do now, while less
wealthy nations would get to increase their consumption.
Live within your means (national biocapacity):
Others argue that every nation has to
live within their
own
biocapacity. In this case, countries with low biocapacity would need
to consume less than countries with high biocapacity. Consider how biocapacity is
5
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upload, or share any course information or assignment from or to another student or an online vendor, repository,
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distributed around the world, how this might affect our globalized economy and the
history of colonialism. For example, the US consumes much more than its biocapacity.
Describe the ethical and social justice challenges that come with each of the scenarios. Which do
you think would be more “fair”? There are no “right” or “wrong” answers as long as you explain
your reasoning and use examples. 4pts.
When dealing with these situations, it can be very difficult to narrow down on the “correct” way
of fixing it or trying to fix it. I feel that “live within your means” makes the most sense because it
seems the most rational. It will go over better with the people and hopefully it will encourage
individuals to help. If everyone had a specific role, they needed to play in our society in order to
benefit this way I think it could potentially work. This way, everyone is on the same playing field
due to the fact that nobody can go beyond their biocapacity limits. Even though different
countries have different numbers, they all apply equally. This would be the fairest way in my
eyes and one that individuals would agree with the most.
End of LAB
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