In my Environmental studies class, we have an assignment to go to this site and see our ecological footprint, or how much space we as individuals need to maintain our current way of life.
go to www.myfootprint.org and go through the couple questions they have…it will tell you how many planets it would take if EVERYONE lived the way you live…pretty interesting stuff.
post your results!
mine is 3.7 Planets…
damn i got 4.3 or 3.4 i dont remeber but wow thats a lot of earths
cRAZY . … living in a g8 country … . dang we are so blessed . . .
Thanks surferguy80. I love these types of little quizes that run around the internet.
Of course I find fault with some of the questions. Thank goodness they didn’t ask
me how many poisonous surfboards I own.
I ended up with 2.1 planets.
Hopefully on planet 2, The east coast of the U.S. has better surf.
in the summer i get 2.3 winter i get a 4.
i had to become a 65 yr old vegan who eats only localy grown produce and lives with 7 other people, who never drives, to make it to one planet…lets all make the switch!
The message is to try a bit harder to take care of the gifts and pass them on to healthy children
(By the way, what’s really most difficult sometimes is listening to people talk about how powerless they are against this or that habit/addiction, or listening to people try to rationalize the gaps: “I couldn’t do this. And I could never do that.” “Why change?” “I like cigarettes/crack/alcohol/fossil fuels/my diet/etc”)
over 6!
Sweet.
CONSUME
CONSUME
CONSUME
FOOD 3.7, MOBILITY 0.2, SHELTER 3.5, GOODS/SERVICES 2.5
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.
3.3 oh well - Sorry, I don’t even know what to make of it at this point… I got my own problems, and my problems are your problems and your problems are my problems…
the rediculous thing is that when trying to solve problems, we just create more…how do you grow more soy beans to reduce pollution and up the ammount of food the population of china can consume?
…find a country that can produce alot of soy…like brazil…then cut down a bunch of rainforest to make more room for fields…that sounds good doesnt it?
solutions cause problems, woohoo!
Oh, now I remember why I wanted to go surfing…
I got 1.1 planets !
By the way I read an article recently about Cuba’s quest for food self sufficiency since the soviet union collapsed, apparently tey are doing very well, and finding that organic farming is way more efficient than conventional methods. For example the City of Havana now produces 90% of its own food from gardens within the city, they have about 200 gardens in the city.
Buying organic because it’s organic may not be as “sustainable” as buying fresh, not-necessatrily organic locally grown - cosidering the truck, boat, jet miles to get it to you. That said, I recently bought some shoes (outlet) called Nike Considered. Look it up, read about them. One of the criteria is that all the materials come from sources less than 200 miles from the factory (yes, in China). Probably too late to matter anyway.
3.7 too.
but I did buy some locally grown, organic, harvested and delivered with bio-diesel peaches. does that count for anything?
In Havana the organic food is grown locally, which is ideal. They also mentioned that the previous farming methods used about 8 times as much energy to produce the crops as was contained in the crops themselves.
I make my own shoes…
Hmmph Dale, that’s nothing, I don’t wear any at all !
Do you really make your own shoes?
In Havana the organic food is grown locally, which is ideal.
Yes, very cool. I just read Michael Pollen’s ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’ which goes into this stuff pretty deeply (and I think is a must read for anyone who gives a damn about how they live). He talks a lot about what he calls ‘industrial organic’- giant farms in Chile growing out of season Asparagus, the stranglehold on Organic Greens that 3 companies have in the US and much more. Organic is nice, but if was trucked hundreds of miles in a refrigerated 18 wheeler, maybe not so environmentally friendly. Better yet, my mustard greens and tomatoes grown here in the backyard in S. Central LA with tea leaf, coffee ground and mango skin taste much better than the fancy high dollar Whole Foods ones! (bet those peaches were good though…)
Thanks Surferguy. I think that website site is what’s called a WAKE UP CALL.
I lived for 3 years in Sierra Leone West Africa and I’ve seen how the other half (or actually the other 80%) lives. When I came back I was most appalled at the way Americans waste food. The amount of food we send down our “garbage disposals” or is left on our plates at restaurants would totally shock the West African, most of whom eat meat maybe a few times a year and never waste more than a few grains of rice a day (and I swear I’m not exagerrating).
I scored a 2.1 and I’m really trying. I think we all need to live what Yvonne Choinard calls “an examined life.” My wife and I did a little examining this summer and we decided to become vegetarians and I now ride my bike to work at least 3x a week. Every time I see a Hummer or Ford Excursion go by I think, “My sweat is making at least one of your SUVs into a Honda Civic! Yeah! Take that!” I also admit I’m thinking, “This is really great cardio and I’m going to charge big surf this winter with a lot more confidence!”).
I’ll add a couple more resources- www.ucsusa.org The Union of Concerned Scientists- They have a good book about EFFECTIVE ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION that individuals can take (hint-drive smaller cars, drive less, eat less beef). Worrying about other issues such as paper or plastic bags, or cloth or disposable diapers, according to them, kind of a waste of time. They explain why.
One other thing I’ve done and recommend others do is I’ve bookmarked a bunch of environmental and activist websites and subscribed to their online action programs- basically sending emails to elected representatives, etc. concerning diverse issues (i.e., oceana.org, healthebay.org, wwf.org, etc etc). Does an readymade email make a difference? I believe “everything counts in large amounts.” I had one professor in college who had been an intern for a US Senator. He encouraged us to write to our elected officials. He said they’ve done studies that show every letter they receive represents 15,000 other citizens who feel the same way but are too busy or lazy to write. Maybe a email counts as 5000?
So get off Swaylocks for a couple of minutes and hit your “submit” buttons!