What is your footprint?

[moogie]

I stumbled on this a while a go.  I've heard many peopl since say that because they do one thing like use cloth for example that its then ok to drive their high fuel emission car. this is just an example.  I did this quiz and i do a lot of things for the environment but still I'm using more than my share.

This isn't a you're a bad person thread. its a this is a wake up call and not a brag.
    http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp
    
   My TOTAL FOOTPRINT    3.4
If everyone lived how i lived we would need 2 earths to survive.

I think it needs questions added to it like do you compost or recycle  etc, but its still a good snapshot

[jnezmama02]

4.2.

[mum2maddox]

very cool

footprint 3.2 and 1.8 earth to survive.

i do have to make a few more changes in our time.

i agree that this quiz needed more questions but it did cover everything i spose if you think about it: 

how much waste do you make- it you compost then i guess you would produce less waste than someone who does not.

[kokonutmama]

10.  I knew it, too.  If I did my Hawaii life it'd be smaller, I don't have a lot of freedom of choice seeing as it's not my house.

[tristan]

I just did it and it came out at 2.5. Looks like it is worse if you're female!

There are so many assumptions with this kind of analysis. After all, they only ask 10 questions. It is only really a broad indication, but a real eye-opener for most people.

Great thread, I hope everyone does it.

[AnnieMommy7]

2.7...this is a total lifestyle change from my former life when I drove a huge vehicle and many other "nasty" things.  Sometimes I miss my former life...LOL

Annie

[ShannonandDel]

Are you guys ready???

14


It must be something to do with eating meat or living in a small town. I mean most of us live in houses with electricity and running water, right. I drive about 15 miles a week, don't generate a whole lot of waste, and have a pretty small house.

How did you guys get yours so low? Even when I cheat I can't get mine lower than 6

[AnnieMommy7]

Shannon,

First, I have no car...really sucks!  Whe I go anywhere I am always in a little Toyota with at least two other people and I don't get out much or go far.  I haven't flown in over 3 yrs...no public transportation here.

We live in a house with water, yup...  We have virtually no waste...compost, recycle, blah, blah..  We grow our own organic garden so in the summer...and we eat very little meat...a few times a month.

I dunno?

I can tell you that my Dr's wife foootprint was huge...really huge.  This is quite an adjustment for me...LOL

Annie

[ShannonandDel]

I have decided it must be where I live. I did it for Australia, and I came up with 4. I wonder why that is?

[tristan]

First of all don't be too shocked. We (Australians) are getting a footprint in hectares, the rest seem to be getting acres.

There are 2.47 acres in a hectare.

Hence, the big numbers like 10 and 14 are only really 4 and 5.6 hectares. The average Austrlian is 7.6 and the average American is 9.7.

[tristan]

There are lots of other sites out there that have a ecological footprint calculator, many that are much more in depth. Two I like are http://www.kidsolve.com/products/palm/efc/ and http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/Eco-footprint/Households/default.asp

The latter has an excel file you can download that has lots of questions and seems to be really quite accurate (for Australia).

[jnezmama02]

Shannon, maybe it has to do w/ your climate...b/c  you get lots of snow there for longer than average winter, you have higher than average heating bills (therefore "consume" more energy). Also, maybe living in the mts means that you're also consuming more fuel to get products to your stores...ie going up mountains takes A LOT more fuel to get a semi to you than it does to somewhere flat.

[ShannonandDel]

It makes everything more expensive too. We call it the "over the pass tax"