Ecological Footprint

What's your footprint? For any of you who have not already assessed the amount of resources that you use and whether or not these levels will contribute to the sustainability of our planet, there is a fun, easy to take quiz at the Earthday Network website. This Ecological Footprint Quiz estimates how much productive land and water you need to support what you use and what you discard, giving you a rough idea of your ecological footprint relative to other people in the country in which you live. It is not highly detailed and they suggest not being discouraged if you score high but are already living a sustainable lifestyle as there are some factors that don't have anything to do with what you consume, i.e. where you live and the size of city in which you live.

As you can see from my test results, although I am below my national average, I still have a ways to go to contribute to the sustainability of this planet.

CATEGORY GLOBAL HECTARES
FOOD 1.5
MOBILITY 0.2
SHELTER 1
GOODS/SERVICES 0.9
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 3.6

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 8.8 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2 PLANETS.

So what am I going to do?

• Well, I've been thinking for quite some time about the 100 mile challenge. This is a challenge to only buy food products that have been produced within 100 miles of where you live. Not only does this cut down on the distance your food travels to get to your table, but has the added health benefit of better nutrition as your food is more likely to be vine ripened. For more on the 100 mile diet check out this website.
• I already compost and recycle absolutely everything, but where I probably fall short is I don't always remember to bring my cloth bags to the grocery store. I need to make more of an effort here.
• Now here is the big one...I need to free myself from junk mail and flyers. Can you imagine how many trees we would save if everyone refused flyers. With the internet these days, I figure I can check out the specials online, or have a quick look upon walking into the store. This would also greatly reduce the amount of paper I take to recycling each week.

I'm sure that there are a ton of other things that I can do...but one small step at a time. I challenge all of you to take this short quiz and decide what you can do to make our earth a better place. Good luck!