Students at Sherbrooke Community School have been calculating their Ecological Footprint

A measure of the impact humans have on the environment is called an ecological footprint.

A country’s ecological footprint is the sum of all the cropland, grazing land, forest and fishing grounds required to produce the food, fibre and timber it consumes, to absorb the wastes emitted when it uses energy and to provide space for infrastructure.

Our students were amazed as to how many earth’s we would need if everyone lived the way they did.

Students willing to share their results;

Primary students – averaged 1.3 earths

Conservation and Land management students (year 11) averaged 3 earths

CONSEQUENCES
Tom was shocked by his 4.3 earths so he went back to see what he would have to do to reduce his footprint. Second time he got to 3.3 by reducing his transport. Tried again and came to the conclusion that he would have to be a vegetarian to really have an effect on his footprint. “Not going to happen”. But he is going to reduce the amount of meat he eats.