I stumbled across this site recently:
After answering several questions, it tells you how much your lifestyle is affecting our earth - your ecological footprint.
My score is 12. What's yours?
I feel good about it in that my footprint is half the average American's...but if everyone lived like me, we'd still need 2.7 plants. Food for thought.
* If you're getting some weird site when you click on this link (like I am), copy and paste http://www.myfootprint.org into your web browser to get to the right page.
January 26th, 2007 at 06:05 pm 1169834711
January 26th, 2007 at 06:16 pm 1169835375
Actually, I Would be curious to see a much more in-depth quiz. IT assumed so many acres on goods/services, lord knows why - didn't ask about that and we do not consume much at all compared to the average AMerican (though probably much more than other countries, etc.).
We have a big house, but energy efficiency and don't generate much waste. The food category did us in - something to think about. Buy more locally, that cuts down on transportation and smog, stuff you don't always think about.
January 26th, 2007 at 06:55 pm 1169837702
500 sf house with 5 people, no water, no electric, only transport walking/biking/animal, all unprocessed locally grown food with dairy/eggs every day and occasional meat. i thought this would be pretty representative of an undeveloped village with a few cows and some chickens. what was that footprint? 3. the site says there are 4.5 productive acres per person, so even at that meager level i'm almost at my limit.
i question this because i don't think it is realistic that we have to live in 'undeveloped' conditions in order to have a neutral, or even positive, environmental impact. i like the intent of the quiz, and for the uninformed it might be a big eye opener, but i think for those that are making an effort it makes my actions feel almost meaningless...
January 26th, 2007 at 07:05 pm 1169838354
Tina, I did the same thing and came up with a footprint of 3 as well. I don't want to dissuade people from taking this quiz; I feel it gives everyone something to think about, even those who make an effort to be environmentally conscious. I don't think your actions are meaningless. With so many people on this planet, it's hard not to make some sort of impact, no matter how conscious of it you are.
Personally, I took the quiz again, and if I became vegan, my score would drop one point. That's pretty significant in my eyes.
Also - there's a FAQ section of the site here: http://www.rprogress.org/newprojects/ecolFoot/faq/index.shtml
They provide a more in-depth Excel spreadsheet there, too.
January 26th, 2007 at 07:18 pm 1169839093
January 26th, 2007 at 07:30 pm 1169839839
January 26th, 2007 at 08:59 pm 1169845173
DH's would be lower, since he almost never drives to work.
January 26th, 2007 at 09:18 pm 1169846338
The food thing gets me because most of it travels over 200 miles to get here (and, yes, I eat too much processed food).
January 26th, 2007 at 11:39 pm 1169854795
January 27th, 2007 at 04:13 am 1169871204
January 30th, 2007 at 05:23 pm 1170177792