In the context of our 2013 Master Class in the series sustainable Development, economy and Society, the entire class. and their professor, are calculating and commenting on their ecological foot print. Here you have mine.
Some notes:
1.The site address is http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/personal_footprint/
2. I chose to use Italy as my reference point since it strikes me as the closest to where I live, in the south of France.
3. I think what surprises me most is all that land I need for food. We eat little meat, fish or dairy and mainly local produce, but there you are.
4. I should have looked great in transport: no car myself, share my wife's car and we are always at least two of us, and lots of bikes, walking and public transport. But the killer is of course my use of air transport: my work takes me to Asia at least once per year and quite a bit around Europe.
There you have it from this end. I look forward to hearing about your results and observations.
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Aftermath
After a bit of moping around I went back to the well, and factored in values that put me at max eco-consciousness: no meat, no fish, 100% local produce, eco-lights, wear three (old) sweaters in the cold, toss the computer, never get in a car, don't even take a bus, just bike and walk. And of course never get into a plane. And oh yes, adopt five quiet children with small appetites to live with us so that we drive down the averages even more.
So now what do I look like with my new and improved profile?
Wait a second! after all of that draconian reshuffling of my life style I am down to needing "only" 1.6 planets which is still, if I understand it, an unsupportable load for our gasping planet.
Conclusion
So . .. what have I learned from this exercise? (1) I am puzzled. and (2) I am sure that the answer resides in something I have never thought about.
(And here the Malthusian demographic folks start to chime in with some pretty grim messages. But all that another day.)
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mine came out at 1.9, although it ignores the following:
ReplyDelete• I grow some of my own food (organically)
• I compost all food waste
• I live in furnished rented accommodation, so have no control over large appliances, heating and insulation
• I live in a solid walled flat (little insulation), although in winter I heat to between 15 and 18°C (ie less than 19)
Reblogged this on Jugraphia Slate.
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