research and write an ‘Ecological Footprint’ paper, thoroughly detailing
the life cycle and intrinsic costs of an everyday item. Since I am very interested in forest
ecology, I chose to conduct my research on the ecological and social costs of wooden
furniture, one of the most common household items around the world.
This project was very rewarding because, even though I plan on pursuing more of an
applied science degree, I was still alerted to the vast implications that everyday
consumptive decisions have. The project involved very in-depth research into figures such
as average mileage of a truck shipping wood, and the average CO2 emissions of a shipping
fleet (such as the one utilized by IKEA). In order to do this, I had to call representatives of
harvesting and producing companies, and I had to locate specific information from a
plethora of Internet sources.
This project focused on enforcing the ability to retrieve valid
information and to present it in a readable and efficient manner. I feel this is a vital skill to
have in the scientific realm, for tasks such as report writing where a large quantity of data
is at hand and the target audience needs to be educated in the results of the research.
In addition to data retrieval and report writing, this project gave me additional
motivation for studying forest ecology as a graduate student. My report showed how large
the emissions of greenhouse gases associated with the wooden furniture industry are, and
these can only be reduced through sustainable forestry practices and increased public
awareness of environmental issues.
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