Ecological Footprint
 

Was gonna post this in "Cool Site..." but I thought it might deserve it's own thread.

http://www.myfootprint.org/

My results:
I make no claims as to it's accuracy, and leave it to people smarter than me to debate its validity vs. propaganda value. But I did find it interesting, and the questions asked gave me food for thought regarding a lot of my habits, especially travel.

Here's mine. Interesting.

CATEGORY ACRES

FOOD 3.5

MOBILITY 0.2

SHELTER 3

GOODS/SERVICES 2.2

TOTAL FOOTPRINT 9

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 PLANETS.

My results:
Apparently, it's all the milk I drink. I have milk on my cereal, cheese on my sandwich at lunch, and milk with my dinner. Apparently that takes 6.9 acres. I seriously doubt that, but can't offer up any proof. If I was a vegan, my food would be 2.7 acres.

I just took the test again and chose the most environmentally correct answer each time, and it says that if everyone lived that way, we would need one planet. Well, not everyone lives that way, and we only have one planet, so there you go.

Most environmental:

OK. This time I answered like I was the late Malcolm Forbes:

Here is the FAQ, and it's kind of annoying that you have to take the test to get a link to it.

The FAQ doesn't seem to talk too much about how the numbers are reached. Sort of a vague answer followed by "but this is how to make your score lower".

Edit: actually, some of the answers seem pretty clear. It's almost like different people wrote the answers to each question.

CATEGORY GLOBAL HECTARES

FOOD 1.6

MOBILITY 7.3

SHELTER 0.7

GOODS/SERVICES 6

TOTAL FOOTPRINT 15.6



IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 5.3 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.




IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 8.7 PLANETS.


OOOPS!! Maybe I should stop scoffing all the pies while I drive at 100mph round my country mansion.

yeah i win!!! a high score always makes you the winner right?

:eyebrow:

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 4.9
MOBILITY 4.4
SHELTER 6.9
GOODS/SERVICES 10.4
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 27



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 6 PLANETS.

How come it worked mine out in hectares? Is it because i'm in the UK? Anyway, i'm off to burn tyres and turn the heating up!

i've found that if you just start lighting people on fire, you can store your old tires and oil cans in their houses rather than burning them.

"Save the environment, kill a human!" kind of has a nice ring doesn't it?

Why stop at one? Kill hundreds of 'em. Osami Bin Laden could become the new environmental hero. Of course you'd have to target the humans who lived in places like Western Europe, Australia, the UK, and the States since the residents of these countries use the most resources per capita. Maybe there could be a kind of bonus system. Killing someone like me would only score a person 2 environmental points, but you'd be a man with a real price on his head at a 6 planet net worth! :D

CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 3.5
MOBILITY 0.7
SHELTER 13.1
GOODS/SERVICES 9.4
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 27

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 6 PLANETS. :p

Isn't it unfair to measure you vs 'biologically productive acres', if you're scoring points for 'mobility' and 'shelter'?

I've not read the website, of course. But "shelter" strikes me as a fairly one-time expense, if it's building materials and such.

Well shucks. Good thing there are so many people in countries not nearly as well off as this one to balance everything out, eh? :rolleyes:

i like where you're going with this, continue... sort of an updated
Death Race 2000 ?

you have to heat and cool the house, so the bigger it is the more energy it uses to do so...

my score was over 6 planets, ouch. what killed me was i commute 70mi total to work and back a day (marion to iowa city and back, for anyone nosey). the university has carpools, which i think are great, but as a mom, i need to have transportation available in case i need to leave in the middle of the day... the doubled gas prices have KILLED our budget. i drive a 2000 taurus sel, ~28mpg last time i checked.