My ecological footprint

I took this global footprint quiz, and these were my results:

CATEGORY GLOBAL ACRES

FOOD 3.5

MOBILITY 1

SHELTER 4.9

GOODS/SERVICES 4

TOTAL FOOTPRINT 13

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 GLOBAL ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXISTS 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 3 PLANETS.

Even though I call myself an eco-geek, my lifestyle would still require the resources of 3 planets to sustain. On the up side, my ecological footprint in only about half of the average Americans. I don't know how accurate the quiz actually is, since I think we are all prone to rating ourselves a bit higher than we deserve.

Some things I can change and probably will - I've become more conscious of buying food produced locally over the past couple of years, but I can definitely do better on that score. I've gotten away from doing much cooking in the past few years, but I have more energy now, so I could probably also decrease the amount of packaged and processed food that I eat. (Does Trader Joe's hummus count as processed and packaged - because I practically live on that.) If I can get over my fear of biking on city streets, I promise to ride my bike more.

Some things I could change relatively easily, but probably won't. I love ice cream and cheese and have yogurt almost every morning for breakfast, and have no plans to change that because I just don't want to, which bumps me up on the food footprint scale because those are animal products.

Some things aren't changeable right now. I would buy a Prius, but I can't afford it. My big shelter score is because I live alone in a free-standing 600 sq foot house, albeit one with all energy-efficient light bulbs and no air-conditioning or central heat. I won't be changing that because this is a really good situation for me that enhances my mental health, and I need all the enhancing I can get.

I used to think that I was changing the world. Now I know I'm not - or maybe it would be more accurate to say that I've (mostly) gotten over myself and my centrality in the workings of the universe. I can do some good stuff in my little corner of the world, and some of that stuff might ripple out into the world in unexpected and marvelous ways. But the world will basically still run the way it runs - with injustice and pain and beauty and peace and cruelty everywhere you look.

Not personally being the savior of the world is a lot less pressure, and certainly not feeling guilty every damn moment of the day is a big plus, but I wonder if maybe I've gotten a little lazy in my obligations to the planet and the other people on it. We're all connected, and what I do and how I live affects other people, and I'm starting to think that I've become overly self-centered the past few years.

I've been wrestling with this a bit this week - not so much with my ecological footprint as with how I spend my time and how I interact with other people. Also, I can be very stingy - both emotionally and financially - which is one of the more unattractive aspects of my personality.

I've been giving myself a pass for a while, because I've been doing such terribly difficult and painful inner work, but I'm beginning to think that sometime soon self-care may morph into self-indulgence and narcissism. Or maybe not - I'm not sure I know where the lines are or if there are any lines or who draws them if there are.

All I really know is that I'm definitely not ready to give up cheese and ice cream....

Comments

[mfh]

Hm, that quiz seems a bit biased towards a yuppie lifestyle. The Masai eat almost nothing _but_ animal products (mostly milk, a little blood and meat) and they seem to have gotten by sustainably for a few years, no? I don't think you even need dedicated pasture ground to produce milk -- just graze a few cattle or sheep in the ditches -- and in many parts of the world, nothing grows but grass anyway. Also, around here they use goats to graze hillsides (rather than mow them -- saves fuel and pollution, and you can't get a mower up there anyway!) in order to reduce the fire danger -- would be a shame to waste the milk, and goat cheese is super yummy ;-)

[Christy]

mfh -

Yes, it is a bit. I think a lot depends on how the animals are raised and how far your food is being trucked or flown in. The Maasai's lifestyle is very sustainable because their cows are right there, everything is local, and they sure waste a lot less than Americans do.

Meat I eat, on the other hand, most likely comes from a big corporate farm or ranch where the animals are treated badly and pumped full of hormones. Free-range organic meat is really expensive.

I think the standards of what's sustainable and not vary a lot depending on who and where you are. Since I don't have goats running around, I have to be more conscious of where my food comes from.

[Philip]

I think "Peak Oil" will push a lot of people to re-think how they live.