This ecological footprint calculator estimates how much land and marine space is necessary to generate everything that is consuming and bouncing away. After you respond to these 15 simple questions, you can compare your ecological footprint with the others and with the ecological capacity available on this planet. But attention!, this calculator could surprise you, or make you think. Take the results with calm but not too calm! Some factors that reduce the ecological footprint of food are: eat protein from plants or grains instead of animals, avoid eating endangered animals and fishery products without create inspection, purchase and cultivate local products without using pesticides, organic fertilizer using food waste and reuse envelopes and packages. To reduce the ecological footprint into mobility, walking and bicycling, using buses, trains, trams, and other types of public transport, thus minimizing the use of the car and prefer vehicles of high energy efficiency as the hybrids (with fuel and electric motor) is recommended. (Source: Anna Belknap). And to reduce the ecological footprint of energy, it is desirable to use renewable energy sources where possible, use less electrical products, opt for more efficient appliances, prefer compact fluorescent light bulbs, turning off lights and appliances when not in use and reuse of building materials.

Brief history of the day of the Earth on April 22, 1970, twenty million Americans, encouraged by Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day, took the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate for an environment healthy and sustainable. Denis Hayes, the National Coordinator and his staff organized massive protests from coast to coast. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, contaminants from factories, power plants, sewage, pesticides, toxic waste, highways, and loss and extinction of wildlife suddenly realized account that had values in common. The Earth Day achieved an unusual political alignment, counting the support of Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, farmers and people living in the city of leaders, workers and magnates.

The first Earth Day also served as inspiration for the creation of the Agency protective of the environment of the United States (EPA). Senator Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of freedom the highest honor given to civilians in the United States for his work on the foundation of the day of the Earth. As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. This time the Earth Day was global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues at the global level. The Earth Day in 1990 gave a great stimulus to the efforts of recycling around the world and helped open the way for the Summit of the United Nations Earth in Rio de Janeiro. Today marks 35 years since that first Earth Day, and actions to stop the destruction of the planet and deliver a healthy world to future generations, become pressing.