Writing Assignment #2

During Friday's Lunch Discussion I will introduce the idea that people are consuming resources and creating wastes in an unsustainable manner.

Ecological Footprint

An "ecological footprint" is way of quantifying how much or the earth's surface is required to support our lifestyle. Not surprisingly because of our lifestyles, citizens in the United States of America have a much larger ecological footprint than citizens of most other nations on earth.

There are a number of "footprint caluclators" on the web that can allow you to calculate your personal ecological footprint. Unfortunately, because most of you are currently living in dormatories, it is difficult to calculate your footprint using these calculators, so I won't ask you to do the calculations for this assignment. It is kind of fun to play around with these calculators to examine how changing your lifestyle can affect your ecological footprint.

Readings

To learn more about ecological footprints please read-

Ecological Footprint- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Ecological_footprint

Ecological Footprint Quiz FAQ- http://www.earthday.net/footprintfaq

Footprint Basics- Overwiew- Global Footprint Network (there is a lot of good info on this site).

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/footprint_basics_overview/

Writing Assignment #2

What is an ecological footprint? How and why do ecological footprints vary among nations around the world? What do you think about the ecological footprints of the average citizens of the United States of America?

Length- 2 pages minimun, 3 pages maximum

Due Date (I am sorry that I left this out initially)

Rough draft due Friday September 25th

Workshop- Monday September 28th

Final Draft due- Friday October 2nd

Please let me know if you have any questions about the assignment