Kochiites urged to reduce their ecological footprint on Earth Overshoot Day

Cusat students calculate ecological footprint on Earth Overshoot Day: Volunteers from Cusat, Moozhikulam Sala and Changampuzha Samskarika Kendram asked questions to calculate ecological footprint of individuals. Participants were asked about consumption of animal-based products, housing type, renewable energy use, waste generated, car/motorcycle use and fuel economy. Students urged visitors to reduce carbon footprint by using public transport and reducing animal product consumption.

“Going by your standards, the resources that Earth can generate in one year would have exhausted by mid-July,” said a group of young green volunteers from the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) to a 50-year-old at Changampuzha Park in Edappally on Wednesday.

The students of the university had assembled at the venue to calculate humanity’s ecological footprint on the occasion of Earth Overshoot Day on Wednesday.

The programme was organised by Moozhikulam Sala in association with the Cusat National Service Scheme and Changampuzha Samskarika Kendram.

Several persons, especially senior citizens, answered various questions posed by the students as part of calculating their ecological footprint using a method developed by Global Footprint Network, a research organisation involved in estimating ecological footprint. “The questions were centred around mainly the consumption of animal-based products in a week, housing type, and whether the person is using renewable energy resources,” according to the volunteers.

They also elicited the response of participants on the quantity of waste generated in their households on a daily basis and the frequency of use of car and motorcycle on a weekly basis. “We also collected inputs on the average fuel economy of vehicles used by them and the carpooling frequency. The use, if any, of pubic transport modes on a weekly basis was also checked while arriving at the ecological footprint of an individual,” they said.

The students urged visitors to change their lifestyle by embracing renewable energy sources and to reduce their carbon footprint by going for public transport modes and reducing the consumption of animal products.