SUS1501 Assignment 7 Due 30 September 2024

ASSESSMENT 07:
SUSTAINABILITY?

There is no conclusion to this section. I’m not going to tell you that I know the solution. Or even
that I’m hopeful that anyone knows the solution. What I can tell you is that I believe if we are to
have any hope of finding a solution, we are going to have to undergo a social transformation on
the kind of scale that our predecessors underwent when our societies moved from hunter
gatherer societies to agricultural ones, or when they moved from agricultural societies to
industrial ones. Major changes! And by major changes I don’t mean 4th industrial revolution
claptrap. In spite of all the hype that is really just the latest version of the industrial revolution.
But that is not really what this assessment is about. So, what is it about then?
INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 1: Set the scene
To set the scene for this assessment we want you to first try and estimate your own ecological
footprint.

There are probably many ecological footprint calculators on the web but we suggest this one
because the data used in the graphs you have just seen is sourced from the same site:

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/

If this one doesn’t work, you can just google “ecological footprint calculator” and I’m sure you
will find another one.

Step 2: Write a comment about your footprint
Right, now that you have an idea of what your ecological footprint is, you are going to do what
you have done in most of the assessments up until now. You are going to post a comment (4 or 5
paragraphs this time) in the discussion forum below.

Sounds simple enough right? Well yes and no.

Your answer must contain all of the following parts:

Part A

You need to say something about your footprint based on what you have just read in the
“Sustainability?” section. How do you feel about this result?

Part B
Next we want you to think back to your previous assessment, assessment 06. In that assignment
that dealt with saving the mountain gorilla, we asked you to think about the essentially virtue
ethics questions of: “So where do I fit in in this?”