After taking the Ecological Footprint I was a little disappointed that it would take 7.6 Earths to provide enough resources. I was disappointed because after everything I have learned through this course and how we humans have destroyed much of the natural world and here I am using up all of these resources. I am pretty sure that most of the resources I use are not really things I NEED, yet I'm using them everyday! This also made me think of my family and future generations...I am almost sure that I am not the only one living this way and to think that one day our entire earth could practically give out because of people like me is something to really worry about! My future kids can possibly not have anywhere to enjoy nature or they can have more health problems because of the many things that we keep on doing to the earth...that is what really worried me! I think now would be the perfect time to begin to make changes in the way I live and begin sharing what I've learned with others. Some of the small changes I have made are to stop buying bottled water, making a better effort to recycle, and simply enjoying nature.
Unfortunately, when the picture above appeared on my screen which resembled where I lived, it was pretty accurate. Just to think of the amount of natural things that have been destroyed to make all these things available for my needs and the needs of others it really makes me a little upset. The area above looked so nice and clean and natural when there was nothing, then as I started adding more and more it became crowded and began to look dirty. There has to be more changes that can be made and much more education to teach not only myself, but other about the destruction we are all causing.
ECHO
In visiting Echo I was able to learn so much about plants and how we could use our earth to survive off of it. Although a few things that I saw were relatively new and had no idea that you could make such things, like the hand washing laundry detergent jug other things like planting food to survive and raising animals and taking care of the land were something I was more familiar with. Growing up my family and I would work in the fields picking fruit and vegetables to feed others. The sad part was that most of the time the fruits and vegetables were to expensive for us to purchase at the store and sometimes would not have a chance to eat any. After picking crops all day and not being able to eat some yourself was hard for me to understand sometimes. After so many years I think of all the people picking crops in the fields, yet barely having a chance to feed themselves and their families. This is why I have decided to make a small, but big change by purchasing fair trade coffee.
HERE IS ONE OF MY FIRST SMALL, BUT BIG CHANGE!
As a child my family and I would travel to Mexico every year to visit family. During those "times" when technology hadn't exploded things were different we would spend most of our time doing things outside in nature. We would often say, "Gosh, its so different here in Mexico than in the US, we feel more relaxed and we can go anywhere we want and feel relaxed and calm". Now as an adult I realize that it was because we use to spend all of our time outside in nature. We would walk up the hills, get water out of wells, feed animals, and even wash clothes outside! There were no rules, and no limits to what we could explore and do. All of our food that we ate was planted by my grandfather and the animals were all raised by him as well. If we wanted eggs we went to the chicken coop, if we wanted to make something with herbs or plants we went to the garden, if we wanted corn we got it from the many acres of corn my grandfather had, if we wanted to get to the corn we rode on a horse or we walked through all the green hills of plants and trees. (Oh, how I miss it!) I wonder now how many people still live that way and if they are able to survive off the land as much as we did on those trips to Mexico. In seeing what Echo is doing I am wanting to do more and educate others of different countries, although this may seem like something that is far from possible I think one day I would love to do some type of mission trip and take what I have learned and will learn.
Hand Washing (my favorite!) :)
ECHO
In visiting Echo I was able to learn so much about plants and how we could use our earth to survive off of it. Although a few things that I saw were relatively new and had no idea that you could make such things, like the hand washing laundry detergent jug other things like planting food to survive and raising animals and taking care of the land were something I was more familiar with. Growing up my family and I would work in the fields picking fruit and vegetables to feed others. The sad part was that most of the time the fruits and vegetables were to expensive for us to purchase at the store and sometimes would not have a chance to eat any. After picking crops all day and not being able to eat some yourself was hard for me to understand sometimes. After so many years I think of all the people picking crops in the fields, yet barely having a chance to feed themselves and their families. This is why I have decided to make a small, but big change by purchasing fair trade coffee.
HERE IS ONE OF MY FIRST SMALL, BUT BIG CHANGE!
As a child my family and I would travel to Mexico every year to visit family. During those "times" when technology hadn't exploded things were different we would spend most of our time doing things outside in nature. We would often say, "Gosh, its so different here in Mexico than in the US, we feel more relaxed and we can go anywhere we want and feel relaxed and calm". Now as an adult I realize that it was because we use to spend all of our time outside in nature. We would walk up the hills, get water out of wells, feed animals, and even wash clothes outside! There were no rules, and no limits to what we could explore and do. All of our food that we ate was planted by my grandfather and the animals were all raised by him as well. If we wanted eggs we went to the chicken coop, if we wanted to make something with herbs or plants we went to the garden, if we wanted corn we got it from the many acres of corn my grandfather had, if we wanted to get to the corn we rode on a horse or we walked through all the green hills of plants and trees. (Oh, how I miss it!) I wonder now how many people still live that way and if they are able to survive off the land as much as we did on those trips to Mexico. In seeing what Echo is doing I am wanting to do more and educate others of different countries, although this may seem like something that is far from possible I think one day I would love to do some type of mission trip and take what I have learned and will learn.
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