Lab 2: Eco-footprint and Water Footprint
Week of Tue, Sep 8 · lab closes Mon, Sep 14 · 30 points
This lab's items
- Lab Write Up30 pts
Exact due times are in Canvas. Late assignments are not accepted without a valid, documented reason. Make-up assignments are not given without valid documentation.
Know these cold
- An ecological footprint measures the total area of biologically productive land and sea required to supply the resources a person or population consumes and to absorb the waste they generate.
- Biocapacity is the amount of productive land and sea that nature can supply. When a population's footprint exceeds Earth's biocapacity, we are in ecological overshoot — consuming resources faster than they regenerate.
- As of 2024, humanity's aggregate ecological footprint exceeds Earth's biocapacity by roughly 1.7 Earths. This deficit is possible short-term only because we are depleting stocks built up over millions of years (fossil fuels, soil, groundwater).
- A water footprint measures the total volume of fresh water consumed and polluted to produce the goods and services used by a person, business, or nation. It has three components: blue (surface/groundwater), green (rainwater used in agriculture), and grey (water needed to dilute pollutants to acceptable levels).
- Virtual water is the water embedded invisibly in food and manufactured products. One kilogram of beef requires roughly 15,000 liters of water to produce. One cotton T-shirt requires approximately 2,700 liters.
- Food choices are the single largest component of most individuals' water footprints. Plant-based diets generally carry a much lower water footprint than meat-heavy diets.
- Reducing ecological footprints at the individual level: eating lower on the food chain, reducing food waste, using public transportation, choosing energy-efficient appliances, and buying less overall.
- The footprint concept connects directly to BIO 1120 Outcome 3: evaluating the impacts of human activities on ecosystems. Higher footprints correspond to greater ecosystem disruption globally.
Discussion and forum — how to show up
Netiquette from the syllabus: address ideas, not people. Complete sentences, correct spelling. Personal matters go to email, never the board.
Meerk's quiz — open the Lab 2 gate
10 questions, no time limit. 85% on your first attempt in a 24-hour window opens the gate. Retakes inside the window are practice — they help you learn, they don't count. Work alone; the point is to know it, not to have seen it.
Dinner Table Question
Ask at home: If your family tried to cut your ecological footprint in half for one month, which change would be the easiest and which would be the hardest?
En español: Si tu familia intentara reducir su huella ecológica a la mitad durante un mes, ¿qué cambio sería el más fácil y cuál el más difícil?