Monday, July 26, 2010

What's Your Ecological Footprint?

With the Youth Movement in recent weeks, we've had workshops with youth leaders to talk about how we can best educate others in the community about preserving the environment by correctly disposing of trash. Trash dumping in Ciudad Sandino, and Nicaragua in general, is a big problem. Many people burn trash, which contributes to air pollution and public health issues, or dump trash into water.

Many visitors to Nicaragua are appalled to see people throw plastic bags out of buses or cans on the ground--a problem that desperately needs to be addressed, and which some groups, including the Youth Movement are working to change.

In other countries, like the U.S., sometimes pollution is less visible (less trash on the streets in many places), but the overall environmental impact of people's lifestyles are much greater.  If everyone were to live like the average American, we would need more than 4 worlds to support us all!  If we all lived like the average Nicaraguan, we would need less than 0.21 worlds!

The Youth Movement is concerned with lessening our ecological footprint, to preserve the plant for the future.

What's your ecological footprint?  How can you make changes in your life to live more sustainably?

Take a short quiz to check our your Ecological Footprint

And see some Tips on How to Reduce your Ecological Footprint