( . . . ): Footprints

29.11.06

Footprints

Here's a gizmo for calculating your ecological footprint.

I'm glad they finally got one with a broader database. Most of these quizzes assume you live in the US.

6 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Scary: despite my always walking or taking the bus, living in a small house, etc. I take up way too many 'global hectares'. In fact: if everybody lived like me we would need TWO POINT TWO planets. And it's mostly due to the food I eat, plus that I live in an old and environmentally unfriendly building.
Still, I think of myself as leading quite a modest life, and I do, when compared, say, to most 'grown-ups', i.e. people with cars, children, jobs, big houses, etc, i.e. most people in Norway.; November 30, 2006 12:50 pm
mrtn said...: 2.2. planets? That's actually really good in Norway. My score was 2.7.

The good thing about the grown-ups is that they live 3-4 people or more to a household, which is way more efficient than the single one-or-two person households we have.

But also, a lot of our score comes from the society we participate in. If Norway as a whole would change some aspects of it, our score would go down collectively.

I wonder if another thing here is that in a fair world, the huge populations of the developing countries would be far lower, because more people there would be educated. So there would be fewer people on the planet, ideally. Maybe that's another part of the solution.; November 30, 2006 12:56 pm
mrtn said...: I meant single or double.; November 30, 2006 12:57 pm
Anonymous said...: I filled in the form pretending to be my father, and got a score of 6.5. They have no kids at home, but still - that's a whole lot of planets!; November 30, 2006 3:49 pm
Anonymous said...: This was really scary, I'm actually scoring between 8-10 even if I only walk or use public transport, consistently recycle and have a relatively small appartment. I don't really know what I'm doing wrong (except flying quite a lot, that's true). What are the scores of "ordinary" families with one or two cars and big houses?; December 01, 2006 10:29 am
mrtn said...: Really?

Maybe you eat less processed foods than you think? My first instinct was "oh, heaps. Maybe three quarters", but when I started thinking about it, I actually eat much less than that: mostly fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, often local meat and fish, etc. Also, I think I travel less on public transportation than I think, and I never use cars.

But flying is a big thing, I think. I tried upping my flying score to 100, and my score went up by four planets. Maybe we should use NSB more often? Which is why we need the hurtigtog.

I guess if you have two cars, you're screwed. But I think that bigger households are offset with a higher degree of food efficiency, and better efficiency per square meter of energy.; December 01, 2006 10:57 am