I’ve just taken the ecological footprint quiz again and, while quite pleased with the reductions we’ve made to date, we still have some way to go.
My total footprint - the amount of land required to support me - is down to 2.5 global hectares, made up of food, 0.9 global hectares; mobility, 0.1; shelter, 0.9; and goods/services 0.6.
The average ecological footprint in the UK is 5.3 global hectares per person, in Australia it’s 7.6, in Canada it’s 8.8 and in the US it’s 9.7 hectares. Worldwide, there are 1.8 biologically productive global hectares per person.
By way of contrast, the average ecological footprint of an Ethiopian is 0.8 global hectares.
To make it easier to understand, the quiz finishes by saying that it would take 1.4 planets to support me at my present rate of consumption. A typical American requires 5.4 planets, a typical Australian 4.2, a typical Briton 2.9 and a typical Ethiopian 0.4 planets.
That makes it fairly clear who is supporting the lifestyles of the affluent West. (Of course, global consumption actually exceeds the biologically productive land so we’re fast running out of time and resources.)
When I did the quiz a year ago, my footprint was 1.8 planets so a 22% reduction is good going. I’d like to reduce my footprint down to one planet, but I suspect this will be hard to achieve without moving to a new-build, eco-friendly house.
Still, we can cut our car use further, reduce our energy consumption further and buy locally whenever possible as this will continue to make a difference.
Take the footprint quiz and see how much land is required to support your lifestyle.
Then take action to reduce your footprint. Consider the choices you make every day and ask if what you consume really is necessary.
And if you have suggestions for reducing your ecological footprint, please share them. Every little change does help.
Well, I took the test, and it shocked me somewhat. I am still digesting the information, not sure what it means to me or what I can do, but it has opened my eyes somewhat, even more than the regular reading of your website.
And I thought I was trying, but this shows me I havent even begun to start. Now I just need to begin.
Not sure if this makes sense, but I am typing it immediately after seening the result of the test, and it shook me a bit.
Thanks for the link.
If you’re not sure what it means, ask away!
And it’s good that this post has made one person stop and think already.
As for what to do. Start small.
Take one less journey by car or motorbike. Buy food that’s grown and produced as close to where you live as you can find. Use your heating or air-conditioning a little less. Take your own reuseable bags to the supermarket instead of using their plastic carrier bags. Change your house lighting to low-energy blulbs and only switch on the ones you really need.
Good luck and try not to think too much!
That was a wakeup call! 5.3 I suppose its better than the average Aussie,but I’m not proud of it. Looks like our plans to be semi self-sufficient can’t happen fast enough. If only landlords let you keep livestock and change inefficient items and replant the gardens.Still we’ll keep doing what we can and trying to find ways to do more.
Stoney, have you heard of the Lavoisier Group? They’ve been handing out important looking booklets about climate change(and the fact that it’s not happening,in their opinion).Tom was given it through the mine. They quote lots of stuff and different people. What I want to know is,how does the average person without an environmental science degree and access to the facts,decide what is fact and what is fiction, everybody seems to have their own agenda. They all just sling insults at each other and quote complicated figures at the public.I know a lot of things humans do are detrimental to the planet,that’s just using common sense, but how do I make sense of all this scientific,climatic,chemical mumbo jumbo,and no i’m not thick,so if I don’t get it surely other people are the same.
I believe there is an environmental problem,but where do i get the hard facts to give me the confidence to back up that opinion?
Funny you should mention the Lavoisier Group. They’re a bunch of shysters funded by big mining and petroleum interests to downplay global warming and attack “junk science”.
I’ve been researching them and another similar groups, and should have a post ready soon.
I’ve touched on this before in Exxon spends big to play down global warming and BBC perpetuates scientific fraud.
There is a worldwide network of these people who used variety of “foundations”, “research centres” and “institutes” to give themselves credibility. Their “scientific” papers are not peer reviewed, are poorly referenced (and often the references are to each other) and often full of detail that is not actually relevant but may seem so to the less informed.
They also attack the real scientists by arguing that climate change is just a theory and not truth. Well, science is just theory based on observation, whether of experiments or the real world. Theories are a way of describing something and are subject to ongoing revision as more data is obtained, recorded and analysed.
So I’m incredibly wary of anyone who claims to have the scientific truth - like the climate change “debunkers” - and much more open to anyone who says they have developed a theory based on observable phenomena and repeatable experiments, that the theory has been peer reviewed, and is subject to review, re-interpretation and re-assessment as more data becomes available.
I realise that can be hard for the average non-scientist to accept and I also know that people want the “truth”, but that simply leaves them open to exploitation by vested interests and their cronies.
Must look into this when the sun comes mate; it is almost 0100 now.
My foot print is 3.7
Food 1.8, but next year we can reduce that by growing our own veg hopefully
Mobility is 0
shelter 1
Goods and services 1.
Not too bad considering our limitations, and we have hardly notice any change.
Well, I have woken up with a fresh mind, and a few ideas on my first steps.
Thanks again for the kickstart, will keep you updated on my progress
Okay, off to do some research to find more waysto help our planet.
Only thing is my husband is an electrician working in a coalmine! And no,he won’t be changing jobs! We’ll just have to work harder in other areas to reduce our footprint.
Nothing wrong with that. Coal is a useful resource - it’s the rapacious, wasteful, polluting over-exploitation of it that’s the problem.
Ask a miner which is better - gradual exploitation of a seam over decades so that it supports generations of local people and users pay the real cost? Or rip it out in the “most efficient” way possible for a couple of years, sell the coal cheap, then close the non-productive mine and dump all the miners on the scrapheap while the mine owners move elsewhere to do the same thing?
Well said Stoney.
Well, we shopped at the local butcher for local produce instead of at the big chain for the packaged meat. And I walked to the local bakery for bread instead of buying it at the chain. So I save a journey as well, its a start I guess. And if someone as lackadaisical as me can make a start, I guess there is hope.
Brilliant! Lots of small steps make one big one. Hopefully, the taste and quality are better, too.