[deciduous]

Ecological Footprint - Calculators

I thought it would be cool if everyone posted their results and we can get some kind of average.... mine was 4.5 I definately lost points for not being veggie, and for flying to the states every year...

[Aalaia]

I got 4.8. If everyone lived like me we would need 2.5 planets....so i was told. am I really that bad. No wonder the world is in such a mess. I know many peolpe worse than me. Our poor world!

[TheQueen31]

I am a 3.9 and I thought I was doing pretty well. Scarey stuff.

[deciduous]

keep in mind this takes into acount the amount of land needed to absorb waste, and to be set aside for biodiversity.... i know it seems like we are all going to have pretty intense footprints. something that comes up a lot is the increaesed cost of transporting food from far away places. the 5000 mile caesar salad days are going to have to come to a close....

[Stepper]

I wasn't able to use that calculator--I think the web site is down or something. I used this one (http://www.earthday.net/Footprint/index.asp), which told me gave me a really high score (4.5 planets--ugh!).

I recently began commuting to New York City using the train and subway, but it's still 80 miles round trip.

I like these calculators because you can plug in other numbers to see the effect if you change something. This calculator said 19 hectares for what I'm doing now, but 16 if I go vegetarian and eat locally. If I cut out the commuting, it only drops by 1 hectare.

If I live as carefully as possible, based on what I could realistically do (I think), it drops to 14 hectares (3.2 planets). Yikes!

However, this calculator doesn't take into account that I'm buying my electricity from a renewable source and although I still drive my car, my weekly average mileage is a lot closer to 10 than to 100.

From other calculators I've looked at, I think the most effective thing I can do right now to reduce my impact is to change my food-buying habits. There's a farmers' market in my neighborhood that should be starting up soon. I need to take advantage of that, and in general, work on buying foods with less packaging.

Eventually, I would like to work up to the 100-mile diet (http://100milediet.org/), but I need to retrain my eating habits. If I just jump right in without exploring my options and developing a palatable (and nutritious) menu, I will be doomed to fail.

[deciduous]

hmm ya good point. I have yet to find a footprint calculator that I find to be satisfactory as far as explaining how they arive to conclusions, and takes into account factors on a more individual level... anyone find any other sites with footprint calculators ?

[Aalaia]

I love the idea of the 100 mile diet. There are a few health issues though. In general people indigineous to a particular area need the foods that grow in that region because they are biologically adapted to that area. In the case of immigration and migration people are living in places that do not naturally grow some of the foods that they may need for optimum health. It would take 100's possibly 1000's of years for the human to completely adapt to the new area.

[deciduous]

uhmm, greenhouses can grow most any vegetable... I don't think your really on target with humans "evolving" to adapt to food sources. In north america, we moved waay beyond that point a long time ago. The problem is, most of us are still eating food that is unhealthy, and grown in a way that does not protect the long term stability of top soil and water supplies.