http://www.footprintnetwork.org/pt/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/
Turns out, mine isn't all THAT bad.
As you can see, my lifestyle would consume 3.7 earths if everyone lived like me. On the downside, that's 2.7 more Earths than we have. On the plus side, it means that I live MUCH more eco-friendly than most of my fellow Americans. This is probably due to the fact that I don't own a car, and that I walk everywhere. If there is a place that is too far for me to walk, I would usually ask a friend to take me there. Another fact that is on my side is that I live in a small two story apartment with two other roommates. We all tend to live pretty humble lifestyles and while we have the funds to spruce things up if we so desire, we're not exactly keen on living the dangerous, adventurous, yolo college lifestyle. We're very down to earth people!
These results were pretty much expected of me, although what's really cool for my situation is that my carbon footprint has actually gone down! I took a very similar test, it might have been the same one, my Senior year in High School for my Environmental Science class. In that particular experiment, I found that my lifestyle consumed 6.7 Earths. This was in part to the fact that I lived with my family of four, and we live in a fairly large sized house and I was driven to school everyday and I took the bus too.
These results were pretty much expected of me, although what's really cool for my situation is that my carbon footprint has actually gone down! I took a very similar test, it might have been the same one, my Senior year in High School for my Environmental Science class. In that particular experiment, I found that my lifestyle consumed 6.7 Earths. This was in part to the fact that I lived with my family of four, and we live in a fairly large sized house and I was driven to school everyday and I took the bus too.
I don't think I'll be able to reduce this footprint much more though. I don't drive, I live on 25$ of food a week (a self imposed budget), my roommates and I rarely use the heating / AC, and I try not to waste food and other resources. At this point of my life this is most likely the lowest that my carbon footprint will ever reach. It's a bittersweet realization that the lowest I can get while functioning in society is 3.7, but I really don't see much alternative.
One should still strive to lower their footprint though. As we discussed in class, our footprints are tied to this notion of "greening the system". The lower our footprint, the more green the 'system' or the world around us becomes. The more conscious effort we make to live sustainable the more sustainable things become. Our lives become molded to reflect our actions, products we use become redesigned to mirror our desires. Basically in a nutshell, the more effort we make into trying to live better, the better our lives around us actually become (in an environmental sense)
Hi, Chris:
ReplyDeleteGood job on this post. I'm glad that your footprint has shrunk! I also agree with your assessment as to why it probably won't be possible to shrink it much further. To some extent, our impacts and our consumption are embedded in our socioeconomic system. Until the incentives and institutions in which we are embedded change such that externalities are better internalized, we will have a hard time reaching a one-earth footprint. It's thus all the more important that we lobby for better, internalizing environmental policies!
Best,
G
1.9/1.9