Our children have a very egocentric view of life and, through limited life experience, they typically assume everyone has the same type of lifestyle as they do. While we talk a lot about conservation, how do we really measure up to other people? As you study ecology and conservation with your child, go online with them to take one of two Ecological Footprint Quizzes to reveal the size of your family’s ecological footprint. The first EFQ is very visual and fairly basic and simple and would be the best for younger children. The second EFQ is more in depth and would be great for older children.
The results that come up from the first quiz will reveal several interesting facts . . . and they may surprise you! How many acres of land are needed to sustain your lifestyle? How does that compare to the average person? If everyone had the same lifestyle as you, how many earths would we need to survive? The second quiz gives results about the number of earths needed to sustain you, and a breakdown of what areas of your lifestyle are consuming the most natural resources.
The first quiz is provided by an organization called “The Global Footprint Network” and the second by “The Center for Sustainable Ecology.” Besides the quizzes you can also find a good bit of information on conservation at either website. The quizzes are definitely eye-opening and can lead to some great discussions about protecting the environment and conservation of natural resources.
