Ecological footprints

My ecological footprint as given by the Apollo calculator was 2.2. In our tutorial group, I think the range was generally from 1-point-something to 4-point-something. Anyway, we were trying to determine which factors would result in a higher rating, but in the end no one could reach a conclusion since we found that not everyone was given the same questions. Apparently, your earlier responses will affect what questions you are given later.

Someone made the point that this calculator underemphasizes electricity usage compared to other calculators she’s done. Maybe Singaporeans will get a lower score then, since we use air-conditioning so much. Personally, I find that there’s a very strong emphasis on transport, so those who fly regularly e.g. exchange students, got a really high score compared to the rest. Therefore, the weighting of each factor can be very subjective, leading to variations in the calculated result.

Another problem raised was that the footprint calculator only asks about people’s homes, but how about their footprint at work/leisure? For instance, I don’t have air-conditioning at home but lately, I’ve been spending more time in school than I do at home, and using the school’s air-conditioning, so my actual footprint might be higher if that’s factored in.

Oops, it seems that this post has turned into a critique of the footprint calculator but really, I wonder just how useful and meaningful it is to arbitrarily combine so many different variables into a single score.

Si En

Earth Hour

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7319929.stm

I didn't realise that there's such a thing as Earth Hour. Thought it's really interesting. Has anyone of you experienced the feeling of 'darkness' in Sydney? Can you share your experiences?

Perhaps critics are right to point out that the amount of electricity saved during that hour across the cities participating in the activity may be negligible, I would say that it is an initiative to raise awareness of global warming and how we can play a part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A large scale power cut across the city would remind the city-dwellers that they can also switch off their lights in that hour, or perhaps in other hours on other nights.

Cheers,
Yueh Chinn

Grouping posts by tutorial topic in Blogger

Hi fellow members of SRES1001 and GE3239 Collab Group 13,

Firstly, thanks Indy for having the MSN discussion with us on Monday, and also for taking time and effort to liase with us. Sorry that we got off to quite a slow start, hopefully now that we’ve gotten around the technical issues, it’ll be a smooth collaboration ahead :)

Anyway, I just discovered we can use the ‘Label’ function in Blogger to group our posts by tutorial topic. After you log in, just go to Manage: Posts and use the ‘Label Actions’ drop-down menu on the right-hand frame (above the list of posts). Hope that helps!

Si En

Campus Sustainability

The word sustainability gets thrown around a lot. However, throughout the world university campuses are leading by example with the introduction of environmental action plans. These institutions are cities within themselves so if a microcosm of society can effect change the rest of us should follow their lead.

Hello all

Dear all,

welcome to the alliance blog~~ Finally a platform that all of us can use.

Feel free to post your comments here. But please DO sign off with who you are. :-)

Yueh Chinn