So I understand this one a big thing on the website back on Earth Day, but since I wasn't there at the time I decided to do this now. Now I'm not in the ideal situation to do everything possible, but I do what I can to surround myself in the most environmentally friendly situations. For instance, I am lucky enough to live in a newly remodeled and higher energy apartment/dorm building. We have high efficiency washers and do what we can to conserve energy and reduce waste. My campus is going green and the cafeteria becomes more and more environmental friendly as the students insist upon helping change the world. All over campus we have recycling bins and more and more students are joining the effort. I rarely use a car except when going home or on long treks across town. No meat in my diet and only occasional eggs and dairy. Still, I was surprised, both pleasantly and unpleasantly, at my footprint.
CATEGORY ACRES
FOOD 3.2
MOBILITY 0.5
SHELTER 2.5
GOODS/SERVICES 2.7
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 9
IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.
WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2 PLANETS.
I am happy that my footprint was way below average and that I am doing what I can to help the environment, but it is hard to believe that I am double the amount the planet is capable of hosting. This is not a good sign. I will continue to do what I can to continue to reduce my footprint and in the future I will do everything in my power to do what I can to help.
The acreage requirements given by that website are misleading. They are only estimates, and I think that they are overestimated. I did the survey, and although I eat meat every day, oh, the horror, my footprint was still only 9 acres. Just goes to show the guilt trip that the environmentalists try to put us through.
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have." - Barry Goldwater
"... the ostensible means [diversity] of acheiving a desired end had become the end itself." - Clarence Thomas
I find it amazing that on a day in which we see horrid snow storms all across the North East, part of a storm system that dumped alot of ice and snow in my state, we have a conference on Global Warming, and Al Gore still goes on his rants against the United States for not 'doing its part' to stop global warming.
When I was a little kid, we were on the hind end of the "Global Cooling" scare, in which our pollution was causing the world to get colder and we were bringing about a global cooling phase which would lead us to a new Ice Age.
Amazing to see that we have fixed the Global Cooling problem within my own lifetime.
Or, on the other hand, perhaps man-made Global Cooling was as silly as man-made Global Warming is now....
Perhaps, as mighty as we are, we just don't control weather.
I remember reading about that whole looming New Ice Age period. I do not recall the whole science of earth cooling and warming, but I for some reason seem to think there was some connection.
If someone understands the science of it all I would love a briefing. Was it something like the earth will have a brief warming period before hurling into an extensive cooling phase or vice versa? Let me know or send me a link if you know.
Think about it...
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tomorrowtoday
Somewhat. The Earth likes to try and keep things one specific way. That's why life is here b/c the Earth usually maintains solid tempertures and is not drastically far/close to the sun. Well if the Earth began overheating(due to global warming or w/e) the Earth would try and correct this by freezing itself. Your body sweats when you get hot to keep you from dying...the planet will do the same thing to keep itself from overheating.
Running a mile=global heating....sweating=global cooling....15 minutes later your all fine and dandy...15 years later the planet is all fine and dandy.
I don't understand any of this beyond a rudimentary knowledge, so I could be totally off. Keep correcting if so.
Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted
