My Ecological Footprint

This was an interesting exercise, and it's definitely made me think more about exactly what kind of an impact even a small family like mine can have on the planet. I can't imagine who my kind of lifestyle would require five planets, I thought we were doing relatively well compared to many other examples of wasteful living in America.

What this has really got me thinking about are the changes that my family and I need to start making so that we don't continue to consume as many resources as we currently do. I've been persistent in trying to convince my parents that they should try to cook one or two meals each week without meat in order to cut back on their reliance on factory-farmed protein, but this has been a hard sell for them. I think that many Americans would struggle with making changes to their diet in order to "save on resources". It's very tough convincing people that they need to make changes, but perhaps by showing them a graph like the one above, I could begin to get the point across.

There's no doubt that we're consuming more of our planet's resources than we need to be, and I think that it's time for a value shift in America away from the consumer/waste culture that we currently have and towards a  future based on conservation and preservation for future generations. I honestly believe that only a cultural shift like this will have long-lasting effects on this nation's consumerism, as right now our country is happy walking straight over the edge of a precipice.

Seeing old Fort Myers

Maybe its because it felt so nostalgic to me, but this was actually one of my favorite field trips so far. I've spent so much time over the years discovering the different places around downtown Ft. Myers. I marched from centennial park to city hall with the #Occupy protesters in high school. Basically, I've always had a lot of reasons to love this part of our city. This field trip was interesting to me though, as I had never once been to the Ft. Myers history museum. Frankly, I've never had much of a reason to venture in that direction downtown. I was very happy to be able to visit the museum and see exactly what the people who ran it thought were the important parts of our young city's history. The first attraction, the "Cracker House," was a very interesting way to start the tour. I was able to get into the mindset of those early Florida pioneers. They were totally restricted to local resources to build every aspect of their home, and I think that its nothing short of genius that they figured out how to build their houses specifically for our extremely muggy climate. The setting up of doors and windows along the compass rose, along with the minor elevation of the house in order to create air circulation are great ways to help out with the sometimes unbearable temperatures.

The section on the "prehistoric" Floridians was somewhat entertaining, though the one hallway dedicated to it didn't seem like enough to me. I guess its far from the most interesting part of our State's history, but still I'd like to know a bit more about it. Here's that big skeleton they had that was pretty cool.

Perhaps the best part of the tour was the importance that our guide gave to the protection of Florida's waterways. Hew took a much longer time here than anywhere else in the museum, and it felt to me like he was really trying to instill in us the idea that the future of our state really is in our hands. I've been a strong opponent of the releases from Lake O into our waterways, and local fisherman and beach-goers are only now beginning to see real improvements in the water quality in our area. The balance of power is so skewed towards those big sugar plantations though, and until people realize that they ultimately have the power with who they elect, the natural waterflow of Florida may never even be close to being restored.

After the museum, it was fun to walk along the Caloosahatchee and see the riverfront docks and businesses. I've been very impressed with the direction our city's infrastructure has been heading in, and the scale of the retention pond there really surprised me. Altogether, I feel like our city is heading the right direction with its development of the downtown area, and I look forward to seeing what they will do with it in the future.

ECHO

I really enjoyed being able to go back to ECHO for the first time since I was in  elementary school. It's amazing how much of the farm was just as I remembered it, and it was interesting to take a look at certain things again as an adult. One particular part of the tour that I remembered was the demonstration of how to use old tires as a away to pot plants, along with other similar re-purposed material being used for farming. These kind of innovations are exceedingly important for developing countries, and the demonstrations by ECHO really shows the full possibilities of improvised agricultural tools.

The work that ECHO is doing globally really impressed me as well. It's almost surprising to think that an organization with such a global outreach is headquartered right in our backyard. With the programs and initiatives that it supports worldwide, ECHO is truly doing a lot of good for the world. By showing people in developing countries methods of energy production such as the methane recapture system that we were able to examine, they are providing these individuals a chance to have a better quality of life while also allowing them to take positive action that isn't as destructive to the environment.

I was extremely happy with our trip to ECHO. To me, looking at the different farming techniques that they have and how ECHO is trying to come up with solutions for farming in difficult conditions is a lot of fun. It was amazing to me as well that ECHO was not only concerned with food diversity, but also diverse species of animals that may be more beneficial for those in developing countries. I had never seen or heard of the "vampire" chicken, and was surprised to hear that they are actually better in many cases. One thing I was definitely sure of during the trip was that there was no way that you could go on a tour without learning a lot of new ideas and farming practices.

Water Use

* Rounded up to the nearest gallon.

Itemized Household Usage:

Shower & bath: 40 gallons

Toilet: 12 gallons

Sink: 20 gallons

Dishes by hand: 20 gallons

Dishwasher: 5 gallons

Laundry: 12 gallons

Lawn: 395 gallons

Outside & pool: 0 gallons

Daily: 504 gallons

Weekly: 3,528 gallons

Monthly: 14,112 gallons

Yearly: 183,456 gallons

I have to begin this blog by saying that I'm very surprised by how much water my household uses, especially in respect to lawn irrigation. My family has always leaned towards conservation, the only exception being the amount that we water our lawn. Unfortunately, we live in a deed-restricted community, so that means that one can't simply allow their lawn to dry up and die in the name of conservation. Perhaps we can look into cutting back the number of times that we water per week. I will say though that we make sure to turn our sprinkler system off when it has been raining recently, so this is one  big positive step that we're taking to conserve water. 

Water is used for so many different tasks worldwide. The agricultural industry has a natural reliance on water, and much of our nation's food production is reliant upon stable access to clean irrigation water. Water is also used for energy generation in both hydroelectric and nuclear energy plants. It is so essential not just for the daily life processes of humans but we have also developed technology that is similarly reliant on the availability of water. It's hard to imagine anything other than a shortage would truly get people to consider more environmentally-conscious ways to treat and use their water. I think that these issues are likely going to be some of the most important that our planet faces in the near future, and if we don't start examining and thinking of ways that we could prevent such waste of water, we may approach a point of no return with disastrous consequences.