Earth Day Footprint Quiz
I did this one a while back, and planned to blog it on Earth Day, but never remembered to look up when Earth Day is. So, having been reminded by the same quiz going around the EYHE blogring, I’m posting it now.
These are my results from when I did this last August:
CATEGORY GLOBAL HECTARES
FOOD 1.2
MOBILITY 0.3
SHELTER 0.7
GOODS/SERVICES 0.6
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 2.8
IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 5.3 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 1.6 PLANETS.
I got the same “final score” of 1.6 planets today, though with a slightly lower number for mobility (makes sense, I’m spending less time in the car since Toby was born) and a slightly higher number for shelter (which doesn’t make sense, since I live in the same house).
I had to estimate some of the answers and guessed high on my first run-through, then went back and guessed low - and reduced my total footprint to 2 hectares (i.e. a necessity for 1.1 planets). I can’t decide if that’s fairly good, being lower than the average person in this part of the world, or if it’s fairly bad, considering that another tenth of a planet isn’t going to be found easily.
I’d quite like to compare my answers to Jax’s though, since she got 1.6 planets too, and I don’t do anywhere near the driving mileage she does, and almost never drive alone. I know this house is a good size, though it’s certainly not a mansion, and being fairly new, it’s quite an efficient one - and there are seven of us living in it! Foodwise, we eat vegetarian more often than not, and I’m actively trying to cut back on processed foods. So where are you gaining the points to make up for all that driving then Jax?
In: life, quizzes/memes
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Ooh, interesting. Mine was 1.4 and i’m vegan and don’t drive! Think you would have to live in a mud hut eating lentils all day (generating your own power, lol) to get less than one.
Thanks so much for your comments about my pics BTW *blushes* I got an F for my art GCSE you know!
I think it’s that it’s a small car, with fairly decent mileage, and most of the time there are extra ppl in it. Plus I’m not driving as much as I was now that I’m working from home some of the time.
Got good score for vegetarianism, and we don’t do all that much in the way of processed foods and I try to buy ingredients.
Still not convinced by it though as it was next to impossible to get the score down even when I went through and put in our ideal frugal lifestyle.
Hm…I could argue that your small car is still bigger than your family, whereas mine seats exactly as many as there are of us. And are you a two-car family? That’s what? - ten seats for four of you? Overkill, I say, overkill!
I think we’re pretty much damned simply by living in a first-world country
Well, Tim did it as well and got 6.6 planets for his answer, so I think between us we’re killing the planet fairly successfully.
Yes, we’re a two car, two commute family atm, not the way I want it, but I seem to be a bit stuck on a way out
I got 1.1 which considering there are 9 of us wasn’t bad but then again we don’t have a car.