What is your ecological footprint?

[margo49]

two of the questions related to car use - but didn't have the "I don't have a car" option that I needed

Me too, and also did not include the unofficial multi-person point to point mini-bus /taxi's we have here.
We are vego's and have a small house and 4 out of the 5 of us are busy and work on our kibbutz so don't go many places. And the other 1 is DS#1 who is in the army so that he is not living extravagantly or individualistically and travels on leave by bus and train. (And isn't killing or oppressing people personally (*yet*))
So how come we are so broke?!

But it came out ok

Food - 0.8
Mobility - 0.1
Shelter - 0.4
goods and services - 0.4

total = 1.7
need 1.0 planets

[Pax]

Me too, and also did not include the unofficial multi-person point to point mini-bus /taxi's we have here.
We are vego's and have a small house and all 5 of us are busy and all 5 of us work on our kibbutz so don't go many places.
So how come we are so broke?!

But it came out ok

Food - 0.8
Mobility - 0.1
Shelter - 0.4
goods and services - 0.4

total = 1.7
need 1.0 planets

Way to go Margo!

[Blueberry]

Wow Margo! Very cool

Guess we could stand to learn a few lessons

[Blueberry]

Mine's bad too:

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 4
MOBILITY 4.9
SHELTER 7.4
GOODS/SERVICES 8.4
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 25

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 5.6 PLANETS.

What's interesting is my commute doesn't seem to be what's nailing me - it's eating any animal product and shelter/goods services (how do they calculate that anyway?!)

Back to the drawing board on trying to be better

[Pax]

...What's interesting is my commute doesn't seem to be what's nailing me - it's eating any animal product and shelter/goods services (how do they calculate that anyway?!)

Back to the drawing board on trying to be better

The article I posted here talks a little about what is involved in food animal production.

[xeney]

I've taken this before and my results are a little different now: I am eating more dairy than I used to, but we are also working really hard to eat more locally-grown unprocessed foods. And I drive even less than I did a couple of years ago (when I drove about 10 miles a week to night classes).

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 3.2
MOBILITY 0.5
SHELTER 3.5
GOODS/SERVICES 2.7
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 10

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2.2 PLANETS.

When I took the quiz before, I seem to remember that someone fudged around with answers and determined that the place you live affects your score -- there is a point where you personally can't change the outcome, just because of your location. Which doesn't mean the results are invalid; I think the point is really to make people in developed countries aware of how many more resources we use even when we try to be ecologically careful.

Just having electricity and running water means we are using more resources than people who don't have those things. Doesn't mean we should start hauling water from the rivers and posting on TE by candlelight ... just that we should be aware of how relatively privileged we are to have access to all of these resources, and maybe to not take them for granted.

[Thorn]

I was disappointed with my results (vegetarian, drive a high mileage car, energy efficient house), but, alas, I live in a Northern clime and drive/fly too much.

But....has anyone figured out, yet, how to hook up our trianers to a generator? Shouldn't I be able to lurk at TE for free with the amount of spinning I do to ECT? :-)

[Blueberry]

The article I posted here talks a little about what is involved in food animal production.

That's a very interesting article. I guess what surprised me is that it doesn't seem to have made a difference that I've cut out all beef and pork, and only eat meat at all on an occasional basis (1-2 times per week). Just having occasional meat in any form (for me, chicken or fish), and milk/cheese was enough to put me in one of the highest categories.

I stopped eating beef not too long after reading about the load on the earth (and I had some other very personal reasons). Same for pork.

Interesting....

[Bikingmomof3]

I have work to do.

FOOD: 5.4
MOBILITY: 0.2
SHELTER: 4
GOODS/SERVICES: 3.7
TOTAL FOOTPRINT: 13

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.


IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 3 PLANETS.

[stacie]

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 3.7
MOBILITY 1
SHELTER 4.2
GOODS/SERVICES 4.7
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 14


would need 3.1 planets.

[Grog]

Even if they're important things to do, high-efficiency appliances, bulbs, etc., being careful with electricity and hot water, etc., having a high-efficiency car, etc. are marginal when compared to the ENORMOUS amount of resources we use by just living in big houses and apartments (compared to the rest of the world at least), heating them up (or cooling them down, or both), owning a car (even the most efficient ones have to be constructed, which requires a HUGE amount of energy and resources), eating food that comes from faraway, buying all that stuff (clothes, toys, electronics, furniture, and so much more) that we own (worst illustration of it might be the dollar store phenomena), etc.

The actual sacrifices we have to do if we want to live sustainably are MUCH bigger than the ones we make on a daily basis. It would indeed include, for example, foresaking family visits... or forsaking the reason why we live far from our family to begin with.

Clearly, we're not anywhere near that. However frugal I try to be (I'm down to 2.4 planets according to that web site), I still am extremely far from a sustainable lifestyle. It haunts me so much at times it prevents me from sleeping. This just can't work out. And I know that if only a significant portion of the population started living a simpler lifestyle tomorrow, then it would mean a catastrophy for the economy, and lots of people among the poorer in our societies would suffer from it.

I'm sorry I have no solution right now. I hope nobody gets discouraged from doing small things because of the size of their footprint, thinking nothing can be done about it. But I find it a good wake-up call that, hello, we'll have to be a little more serious about changing our lifestyle if we want positive changes to happen on this planet.

[Kitsune06]

The simple fact of the matter is that we are looking at this all wrong. There is a point where we must consider not whether we can sustain life, but what quality of life there will be for the survivors. We could all theoretically exist in closet-sized Japanese apartments, eating very small meals and moving very little to reduce caloric expenditure, etc etc and just keep having children etc etc who will grow up to live in smaller boxes and eating less...

There is going to be a point at which we realize it's not how sustainably we live, not how much we give up, not now conscious we are, but a matter of how *many* of us there are. A single locust does not eat much, but a swarm will desolate an entire valley.

If something were to happen (think Peak Oil etc) we would all be proper f*cked. Especially those of us in the cities. We have hardly got the means to produce enough food from our apartments. Millions would starve and die. ...that's nature's counterbalance. Like a cold winter, it will cull the excess of our population and those who do remain will have greater hope for the resources available. It's harsh, and it's tragic, but it's natural and the reverse swing of the pendulum.

It just p*sses me off and sickens me to occasionally see Hotmail or CNN headlines that say something like "Germany going extinct?" when population growth dips into the negatives for once. As if people need encouragement.

[MomOnBike]

Category Acres

Food 5.9

Mobility 0.2

Shelter 8.6

Goods/services 5.9

Total Footprint 21



In Comparison, The Average Ecological Footprint In Your Country Is 24 Acres Per Person.

Worldwide, There Exist 4.5 Biologically Productive Acres Per Person.


If Everyone Lived Like You, We Would Need 4.7 Planets.

````````````

We can't win for losing. The food is killing us, not only do we eat meat and dairy, but most of our food is from far away. We've got to work on that.

And yes, now that the girls are gone, we really should be looking into a smaller, more efficient house. I wish that they had asked thermometer settings, summer and winter. We'd have scored better.

I'm proud of my transportation footprint, however.

[Pax]

We can't win for losing. The food is killing us, not only do we eat meat and dairy, but most of our food is from far away. We've got to work on that.

And yes, now that the girls are gone, we really should be looking into a smaller, more efficient house. I wish that they had asked thermometer settings, summer and winter. We'd have scored better.

I'm proud of my transportation footprint, however.

Peoples perceptions of the size house you "need" are mind boggling. My co-workers keep telling me that I'm out of my mind if I consider any house with less than 1400 square feet. We currently live in a 950 sq ft condo...there's only two adults in our household what on earth would we do with 1400 sq ft??

[Kitsune06]

My appt is 690 sq feet and it actually seems really big for me. I feel like I rattle around in it... then again my first 'place' was 20x10, a shop made for drying flowers, refurnished (by me) to be a small studio. It had about everything I needed, 'cept a bathroom, but that was shared. I actually really liked the place.