Ecological footsteps
By Jens Groop 3cb
Finland is reported to have the third heaviest ecological footstep in the world after America and the United Arab Emirates. This is very shocking to me, because Finland isn’t a country with very much emissions, but I was wrong. We don’ have the third-heaviest footstep because of emissions and such, but because of our consumption of the earth’s resources. We use four times the world’s sustainable level which is devastating to the world because of great decrease of oil and fossil fuels.
WWE says that the reason to this high consumption is our country’s pulp and and paper factories. But we can’t really cut down on the production because paper and pulp are two of Finland’s most important exporting goods. Finland’s great forests go hand in hand with the pulp and paper industry. Finland has large forests so we have good opportunities to take advantage of this natural resouce. In the article it is said that a Finn uses up to 210 kilos of paper each year. If we could come up with a method to use much less paper we would save the planet’s resources alot and we could go down from the top three of the world’s most overconsuming countries.
On a local level I don’t really think that the people in Vasa can do much to improve the quality of the environment by, for example, using less paper and such, but of course if the whole country cut down on the paper use we could save the world from our ecological footsteps. But Vasa is located on the coast by the Baltic Sea. And the sea is on the way towards total pollution. Indusrties located around the coasts let out waste that pollute the sea wich kills wildlife. If all the industries located on the coast stopped letting out their waste we could save the Baltic Sea and also the wildlife that only lives in this sea and nowhere else on earth.
So if we all could help each other and our country and the world we live in we could make a big difference to the environment and also slide down a bit on the heaviest footstep ranking. Finland is such a small country compared to the USA and the United Arab Emirates so we should be ashamed of that we are so highly ranked if you look on our country’s size.