Ecological Footprint

[sir archely]

http://www.myfootprint.org

This is an interesting site. I had to do this for one of my classes this semester. It takes some basic questions about your lifestyle and calculates how many planets we'd need if everyone lived by your lifestyle.

Just select your country and answer the questions.

Oh, and don't worry, no personal information is required; you don't have to drop an email address or anything. They ask for your zip code, but that's even optional.

I ended up at 2.8 planets, with a total footprint of 12 acres. I thought this was pretty decent, since the average for an american is 24 acres. (but obviously, it's still not exactly great.)

If you have some time to burn it's quite interesting to see the impact of location on your footprint. I redid it using a less developed country and tried to use the same answers (as much as i could anyway) and it spit out a 1 planet result then.


And....i just know someone probably wants to say, "well, that think is bunk, how did they get it anyway? that's not me." To you i say, i'm just the messenger, i make no claims about the veracity of the quiz. Go read stuff in the "more about the footprint" link.

Averages from that:
average world citizen: 2.9 global hectares
average german: 6.0 global hectares
average american: 12.5 global hectares

the earth has 2.1 global hectares of biologically productive space per person.

[LaughingTurtle]

2.7 PLANETS

12 Total footprint


Think it's pretty accurate as a college student...regularly eating meat (food by far was the biggest), living with 2 roommates, and using public transporation and carpooling a lot with a civic (transportation lowest).

Interesting arch...

[QuirkyTemplate]

2.8 w/ 12

Would have been much more if I had not started taking the metro so often lately. Pretty much same as what LT said.

[Anita Blake]

3.5 planets, with a total footprint of 6.3

crazy that, totally crazy.....

[sir archely]

heh, it'd be a good idea to put the units in there...or else it looks like it isn't the same calculation for both. it uses different units for those of us who don't use metric. LT and QT both have total footprints of 12 acres while i'm guessing that Anita's is in hectares. That's why it looks so funny.

[Dregs]

heh, it'd be a good idea to put the units in there...or else it looks like it isn't the same calculation for both. it uses different units for those of us who don't use metric. LT and QT both have total footprints of 12 acres while i'm guessing that Anita's is in hectares. That's why it looks so funny.

Is there such thing as a metric planet?

[sir archely]

Is there such thing as a metric planet?

the planets are obviously the same. i'm talking about the "total footprint."

[Dregs]

the planets are obviously the same. i'm talking about the "total footprint."

I know. I was just being trite.

[Cloric the Cleric]

5.1 planets and 23 Acres.... So, I drive an older car, that doesn't get as good gas milage, I eat meat with nearly every meal, and I put over 300 miles on my car every week. Meh. Strangely enough, when I decided to live in Kenya, and answered the questions the same way (or near enough with the conversions) it dropped to 1.6 planets.

[epiph]

don't worry cloric...i'm not too far behind you...

that's worrisome...if i HAD a bike, and the money to buy a bike, i'd use it...but i have a car...and so i use that...

21 acres and 4.6 planets

[~KA3AK~]

Is there such thing as a metric planet?

Amen to that. Unfortunately most americans prefer to be the only nation stupid enough to have enlish units.
Anyways, I'm close to Cleric and epiph and the nations average.

CATEGORY ACRES
----------------------
FOOD 6.9
MOBILITY 5.4
SHELTER 3.2
GOODS/SERVICES 7.9
----------------------
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 23

That comes out to be 5.3 planets. Yay me!

meh, that's still a little less then average for the US. I have no idea how this test is calculated, but I think this is a little off. According to this, only my food footprint is bigger then the average productive acers per person. Hmm, I don't eat that much. Also the goods footprint seems unreasonably high. I have to hand it to you, the website is well-made.

~searches for the rep button~

[Buck]

You know... this quiz is biased and fixed.

The food acres doesnt take into account that you dont eat it all at once nore that you can reuse the same soil. Also, why would I need 4.5 acres for shelter? I put in 1000 sqare feet. And why would 5.7 acres be required for goods and services? Is there a power plant just for me?

[wiggin]

8 acres. 1.8 planets.

[sir archely]

You know... this quiz is biased and fixed.

The food acres doesnt take into account that you dont eat it all at once nore that you can reuse the same soil. Also, why would I need 4.5 acres for shelter? I put in 1000 sqare feet. And why would 5.7 acres be required for goods and services? Is there a power plant just for me?

Read the "more about the footprint" link.

They actually say that this is a conservative estimate.

-Counting each area only once, even if the area provides two or more ecological services at once.
-Choosing the more conservative estimates when in doubt.
-Including current agricultural practices as if current industrial yields would not cause any significant long-term damage to the soil productivity.
-Leaving out some human activities for which we have insufficient data.
-Excluding those activities that systematically erode nature's capacity to regenerate. They consist of:
--The uses of materials for which the biosphere has no significant assimilation capacity (e.g. plutonium and other radioactive elements associated with nuclear energy production, polychorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)).
--Processes that irreversibly damage the biosphere (e.g. species extinction, aquifer destruction, deforestation, and desertification).

Umm...i'm guessing that your shelter is not just a 1000 square foot box. Electricity requires energy, burning of fuel, acres are needed to absorb the emissions, etc.

As far as food goes, i'm not sure what your point is about eating all at once... You are going to continue eating throughout your life, yes? You still need a certain area to produce food for you. I would think that the goods and services thing takes into account your country, and the averages for that. The only question related to this is the question where you try to rate yourself against your neighbors. ~shrug~

[epiph]

i'm actually better than i thought. i put that i drove a lot more than i actually do before (i looked at my odometer).

13 footprints and 3 planets.