The word foot print reminds us all of the one famous foot print, left on the moon by Buzz Aldrin. Yes, it is of Buzz Aldrin's not Neil Armstrong. Neil Armstrong was the first one to set foot on the moon ("That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind"). But the photo of the foot print left on the moon was that of Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon. The photo was taken by Buzz himself. Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoof prints and paw prints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoe prints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. The print left behind at a crime scene can give vital evidence to the perpetrator of the crime. This makes me remember the picture of of the detective movies where we see the detectives following the foot prints with a magnifying glass. In our daily lives, we all leave foot prints on our path. And unfortunately, these are not just the impressions of our shoes on the path we walk. So what are these? Similarly, to measure our carbon emissions is the factor - carbon footprint (we understand that carbon forms the integral part of all emissions and the major cause for air pollution). 
In this twenty first century world, through our daily activities, we all leave our foot prints in this world. We leave our foot prints on the environment, the water and the ecology as a whole. What is this foot print? Let me explain with a small example. I'll take a paper cup, which we use for coffee/water at our offices everyday. The water foot print of it is the total water used by the cup during its making, usage and recycling of the paper cup. And its actually about 5 litres. In fact, it is said that an average human being uses the amount of water that can fill an Olympic sized swimming pool per year (Yes its huge!!). On the same lines, the impact our daily activities have on the ecology, environment and carbon emissions are called the ecology foot print, environment foot print and the carbon foot print. Does the Govt understand this? Does the corporates measure these? Yes, they do. Remember those lines on few bottles of pepsi or coke, which say they are water positive. That means they are giving back more water to the world than they use in making their products.To understand my second point, lets go back to the per capita human water foot print. Where does so much water come from? The water we use is partly from the ground water table, and some from the rivers/lakes around us. So the entire activity is impacting the ecology that we depend on. So here come the concepts of environmental footprint and the ecological foot print.
Im not competent to write in detail on these topics, or tell people how to reduce this. Then why am I writing this. Im writing this to make people aware that every activity that we do, leaves a foot print on this earth, in so many ways. If we put together the foot print of 7 billion people, and their activities, it has a deep impact on this world and the future generations. Let us all understand this and be aware that every activity of ours is leaving a deep foot print in this world. I feel, the more we understand this and the more we read about this, we become sensitive to the realities that these factors put before us.
But we have many government organisations and compliances taking care of these? Yes.Don't we have the climate change conference pact and the Kyoto protocol? Yes.Are they enough? Yes, may be. Then why be afraid? I'm not afraid but Im just sceptic because I don't see any improvement signs around me, yet. I may be sounding old school. I don't know if climate is really changing, but I can see the changes around me. In Bangalore, this February is the hottest in the last ten years. There are no rains in rainy seasons, but unbearable amount of rains during the storms. India, once a huge exporter of wheat, finds it hard today to sustain its own people with the amount of wheat produced today.
How can we help? I don't know. Our two cents could be the age old principle - "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". The image speaks for itself.
