Guest Column by Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac: What's Your Footprint?

>The following guest column is by Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac:

Earth Day is April 22, just a month away, and with rising fuel and food costs, there is a great urgency, more than ever, for each of us individually to think about doing our part to live a “greener” lifestyle. But before we do so, it’s important for all of us to understand what our individual impact — our ecological footprint — on the Earth is. You can measure yours by going here.

When I worked at the global nonprofit, Earth Day Network, which was created by the founders of Earth Day, the late Senator Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes, we partnered with the nation’s leading public policy think tank dedicated to smart economics, Redefining Progress, to promote this amazing online tool that helps individuals measure what his/her carbon footprint is on Earth by taking an ecological footprint quiz. The result of the test will tell you how many Earths are needed to fulfill your lifestyle.

In honor of Earth Day and in a continuous effort to make our lives more green, I hope you’ll take the time to take the quiz. I do hope everyone, including our community leaders, will share the quiz with their friends, colleagues and family. The following quizzes are also available: The Office Footprint; Footprint Quiz for Kids and the Footprint of Nations.

I also offer a few “fun facts” that really highlight how poor environmental standards globally impact all of us:

• Most of the smog in Los Angeles is caused by pollution coming from China;
• Pollutants from fires in southeast Asian have changed rain patterns in Australia and added toxic pollutants, with adverse long-term health effects for Australians; and
• The US is the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, yet we are the third largest nation in the world by land-mass and population.

So, on April 22, Earth Day, and every day, please do your part to make our world a greener, cleaner place for ourselves and our future.

Tracy Pakulniewicz-Chidiac

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