Assignment 3 (Click here to submit)
This assignment is worth 25% of your final grade. It is an individual reflection assignment.

Ecological footprint is a way of linking the health of our environment to our own unhealthy consumption patterns. The footprint measures our dependence on nature or, in other words, it measures the ‘load’ imposed on the environment by a population. It represents the land area required to sustain levels of resource consumption and handle waste discharge. This assignment is a 3-part assignment:

Part 1 – Calculate Your Ecological Footprint

In the first part of this assignment, I’d like you to calculate your personal ecological footprint. There are a couple of websites that you may wish to review to assist with this. The Global Footprint Network will provide general information at https://www.footprintnetwork.org/. Ecological footprint calculators can be found either at https://www.myfootprint.org/ or at https://www.mec.ca/Apps/ecoCalc/ecoCalc.jsp .

Describe the key points that comprise your footprint calculation. How large is your ecological footprint? How many Earths would be required to support everyone on the planet if everyone had the same level of consumption as you? Reflect on what you learned by calculating your own ecological footprint.

This portion of your paper should be at least 300 words. (about 1.5 pages, double-spaced, font = 12).

Part 2 – Manipulating Your Ecological Footprint

Using the same ecological footprint calculator as in Part 1, try to determine what changes you would have to make to your lifestyle in order to live within the Earth’s means (that is, to achieve an ecological footprint of 0.8 Earths ? thereby leaving space for all other organisms to live on the planet as well).

Describe the key points that comprise your new footprint calculation. What key lifestyle changes would you have to make in order to live within the Earth’s ability to provide for your needs and consumption patterns? Could you achieve this goal? How? Should you try to achieve this goal?

This portion of your paper should be at least 300 words. (about 1.5 pages, double-spaced, font = 12).

Part 3 – Reflecting on Ecological Footprint

Using the data you gathered in the first two parts of this assignment as well as course information and information about ecosystem services from the textbook, and any other information that you have researched, write a reflective paper that demonstrates your understanding of the concepts of ecological footprint and ecosystem services and how they relate to environmental citizenship.

This portion of your paper should be at least 500 words. (about 2 pages, double-spaced, font = 12).

Grading

This assignment is worth a total of 25 marks and will be scored as follows:

Report Structure – appearance/layout, spelling, grammar, references properly cited.
5

Part 1
5

Part 2
5

Part 3
10