Ecological sustainability

Everything we do and consume has an impact on the environment. Land is cleared to grow plants and animals; fish are caught in the sea; water is diverted for homes, businesses and farms; and most transport is powered by non-renewable resources. An ecological footprint calculates the land area that would be needed to sustain an individual (or town, company or country).

Generally, if you live in an industrialised country such as Australia, you are likely to have an ecological footprint that is much larger than a person who lives in a low-income country such as Cote d’Ivoire. The average ecological footprint for all people on Earth is 2.18 hectares. The average Australian footprint is about 7.09 hectares. To enjoy a sustainable way of life, the population needs to stay within the Earth’s carrying capacity, and the average footprint should not be more than 1.89 hectares. As more countries develop industries and improve their standard of living, clever responses will be needed to ensure that everyone can enjoy a high standard of liveability.

Government policy can influence the ecological footprint through power generation, transport, water, industry support, rubbish collection and building regulations. Individuals can influence the ecological footprint through what they eat and buy, how they use water and power, whether they recycle and compost, and how they build their houses and travel.

Your ultimate task is to improve your personal ecological footprint so that it equates to a value of 1, i.e., it takes one planet (which is all we have!) to support your lifestyle. To do this, you need to complete the following 6 steps;

1. Calculate and record your current ecological footprint using the webpage provided
2. Investigate how human activities translates to the consumption of resources. Explore the ways in which one's ecological footprint can be lowered. Particularly via comparing lifestyles between first world countries and developing countries. Use the resources provided in the "process" tab. You may expand your research and use additional resources.
3. Identify positive and negative activites within your own lifstyle which effects the sustainability of ecosystems. 
4. Identify the changes you would make to your lifestyle to lower your ecological foot print
5. Re-calculate your ecological footprint.
6. If you have achieved a value of 1, congratualtions! If not, make further changes that you believe would further lower your footprint (no need to re-calculate again)

The entire process needs to be documentated and submitted as a report. No partuicular format is required. There should be 5 (6 if you do not finish at step 5) sections to the report, corresponding to each dot point. A single page word document is sufficient. 

Resources

1. Ecological footprint calculator; http://www.earthday.org/footprint-calculator
2. Video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAybZOfCN6g 
3. http://wwf.panda.org/how_you_can_help/live_green/
4. http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/living_planet_rep…
5. http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_rep…
6. http://en.reset.org/act/reduce-your-ecological-footprint-0

Learning Area:

Biological Sciences

Year Level:

7

Estimated class time;

Two 1 hour lessons

Learning Area Outcome/s:

Interactions between organisms, including the effects of human activities can be represented by food chains and food webs (ACSSU112);

• Investigating the effects of human activity on local habitats, such as deforestation, agriculture, or the introduction of new species

Solutions to contemporary issues that are found using science and technology, may impact on other areas of society and may involve ethical considerations (ACSHE120);

• Considering how human activity in the community can have positive and negative effects on the sustainability of eco systems 

Communicate ideas, findings and evidence based solutions to problems using scientific language, and representations, using digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS133)

Specific Learning Goals:

At the conclusion of this learning experience each student should be able to:

• Calculate their ecological footprint.
• Explain the term ‘ecological footprint’ as a measurement of the impact our lives have on the environment.
• Identify high impact and low impact lifestyles 
• Describe strategies to reduce ecological footprint

·        Considering how human activity in the community can have positive and negative effects on the sustainability of eco systems