5.4 Earths!? Environmental footprint calculator results

[catherine]

This environmental/ecological/carbon footprint calculator http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/i...e/calculators/ is really interesting.

Apparently for everyone in the world to live the life of The UltraliteAngler we'd need access to the resources of 5.4 Earths! Whoa!

Take a few minutes if you like and play with the calculator.

How many Earths do we need for your lifestyle?

So back to the OP: I finally re-did the quiz (I had done it a long time ago and can't remember how I did). I'm surprised at how big your footprint is! How is it over 5? My footprint WITH the business travel I do for work is 5.6, BUT when I took that out to just look at my personal impact, it was 3.9. And I have a car, live in a single-family house, etc.

I ran a scenario for what it would be if I downsized, and I went from 3.9 to 3.3.

What were your biggest impacts? I'm just curious, because you definitely seem to be a simpler-living person than I am.

[Ultralight]

So back to the OP: I finally re-did the quiz (I had done it a long time ago and can't remember how I did). I'm surprised at how big your footprint is! How is it over 5? My footprint WITH the business travel I do for work is 5.6, BUT when I took that out to just look at my personal impact, it was 3.9. And I have a car, live in a single-family house, etc.

I ran a scenario for what it would be if I downsized, and I went from 3.9 to 3.3.

What were your biggest impacts? I'm just curious, because you definitely seem to be a simpler-living person than I am.

I drive something like 1630 miles a month. I don't recycle at all. I think those two issues really dinged me. I also eat a fair amount of fish and poultry, so I think they got me on that too.

[catherine]

I drive something like 1630 miles a month. I don't recycle at all. I think those two issues really dinged me. I also eat a fair amount of fish and poultry, so I think they got me on that too.

Gotcha. Well, goes to show that this isn't a perfect tool to measure lifestyle and ecological impact, but it's still a good awareness tool. Makes you think about what you're doing.

[Ultralight]

Gotcha. Well, goes to show that this isn't a perfect tool to measure lifestyle and ecological impact, but it's still a good awareness tool. Makes you think about what you're doing.

Right, I kind of think the tool does not realize that I don't buy or consume much; I also don't think it factors in that I catch my own fish.

Not a perfect tool, but I agree. It makes you think about your environmental impact in a comprehensive way. I know many people (myself included) tend to zoom in on our "green fetish" and not think about everything else we do. My green fetish is reducing. For others it is recycling or solar panels or planting trees, etc.

[JaneV2.0]

...I wonder how open people would be to this globally. I am part of a simple living group in my area. The group is almost entirely retirees -- aged 55-70, give or take a half-decade (I am considered young because I am 36). They talk about how people should consider going car-lite or car-free, how people should have fewer children (perhaps none), how people should use less water/oil/gasoline/resources of all kinds, quit "pleasure-shopping," etc. ...

People in developed countries are already having fewer children. Much of Europe--like Italy--is in decline. (I would think the refugees would be a godsend for those countries.)

I keep my fuel usage (I'm at about 1500 miles a year) in check partly by buying "all sorts of stuff on Amazon."

It's my position that conservation can be done on an individual basis without trading in stereotypes, and I don't believe we have to live like penitents to cut way back on waste.

[Ultralight]

People in developed countries are already having fewer children. Much of Europe--like Italy--is in decline. (I would think the refugees would be a godsend for those countries.)

I keep my fuel usage (I'm at about 1500 miles a year) in check partly by buying "all sorts of stuff on Amazon."

It's my position that conservation can be done on an individual basis without trading in stereotypes, and I don't believe we have to live like penitents to cut way back on waste.

World population growth still looks like a hockey stick though. And we're over 7 billion, so that is a massive amount of overshoot.

If you buy stuff on Amazon, aren't you simply outsourcing your gas mileage to someone else?

But with the above said, I think we can have great lives without consuming too much or being wasteful. But I think some aspects of transitioning to this way of life are tricky in our current paradigm. Some aspects are really not that hard though.

[JaneV2.0]

World population growth still looks like a hockey stick though. And we're over 7 billion, so that is a massive amount of overshoot.

If you buy stuff on Amazon, aren't you simply outsourcing your gas mileage to someone else?

But with the above said, I think we can have great lives without consuming too much or being wasteful. But I think some aspects of transitioning to this way of life are tricky in our current paradigm. Some aspects are really not that hard though.

I'm outsourcing my gas mileage to a corporation with large trucks full of packages. I bet UPS uses their fuel far more efficiently than I do. I'm not only outsourcing my fuel use, I'm saving automotive wear and tear and arguably supporting a local company.

That hockey stick shouldn't require everybody everywhere to render their genes extinct. We're just barely replicating ourselves here. Most of the people I know have one child or none (like me), and rarely do they have more than two.

[Ultralight]

I'm outsourcing my gas mileage to a corporation with large trucks full of packages. I bet UPS uses their fuel far more efficiently than I do. I'm not only outsourcing my fuel use, I'm saving automotive wear and tear and arguably supporting a local company.

That hockey stick shouldn't require everybody everywhere to render their genes extinct. We're just barely replicating ourselves here. Most of the people I know have one child or none (like me), and rarely do they have more than two.

Both valid points, especially in our current paradigm.

[ApatheticNoMore]

That hockey stick shouldn't require everybody everywhere to render their genes extinct.

you could preach not having kids until the cows come home and some people will still have kids (so maybe: one should keep preaching!), the human species going extinct through deciding not to breed isn't going to happen. One's genes? Meh most of one's genes were probably already passed on by some cousin who did procreate anyway, and in 1000 years your genes will be so intermingled it won't matter anyway. The vanity about one's precious genes is such narcissism. All we are is dust in the wind Most people in the U.S. may not have many kids but maybe very few is too many given global population growth (and u.s. resource use, well that too).

[Rogar]

If you buy stuff on Amazon, aren't you simply outsourcing your gas mileage to someone else?

Pretty much what Janev2.0 says. When you buy from Amazon your packages are essentially car pooling. Plus I get stuff from Amazon that I might have driven all over heck and back trying to find locally. The thing that gets me about Amazon is all the packaging materials.