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What's your eco footprint?- Great quiz!
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Posted by seraphima z4 AK (My Page) on Mon, Feb 12, 07 at 20:20
I was fascinated with this nifty quiz:
http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp
9 years ago, living in upstate NY, our footprint was 26- here in Alaska we have reduced it to 12.5 (# of acres of productive land to support our lifestyle per person). That's better, but I'm hoping to find more ways to whittle this down.
What's your footprint now, and what was your footprint some time before? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What's your eco footprint?- Great quiz!
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| I've seen/taken this quiz before - can't remember what I got though. This time I got an 18 (four planets needed if everyone lived like me!). Fun quiz, and certainly makes you think, but it's quite general. For instance, my neighbors across the street would probably get approximately the same score, but I compost, I recycle more than they do, I use organic products and foods, and I'm sure that I buy more eco-thoughtfully than they do. But, this quiz a good starting point to get us thinking about how we live and how we can change. Fun! Thanks!
:)
Dee |
RE: What's your eco footprint?- Great quiz!
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| Sorry to say I tried it and was unimpressed. I felt like it was made up by a vegan living in a major southern metropolitan city. In our town, there is no public transportation, it is in zone 4 agriculturally, almost no apartments, no row homes, and sigh, we do all have running water. I went back and manipulated the answers several times to see what changes I could make to improve my score. Basically if I lived in my town, was a vegan, and grew all of my own food, I would make it. I then filled it out as the average farmer in our area would and got a score of 25. Wait a minute, he actually feeds the rest of the world and he is a 25? On the food department, he would score a 4.9 (over the 4.5 limit), this was because I put in the answers that he eats meat with every meal (which they do to have the energy to work the way they do). I tried to offset this by saying that most of his food was locally grown (i.e. can their own food from the garden) and it was still this high. To contrast this a vegan who has all of his food shipped from more than 200 miles away scores a nice 2.7. Huh??????? Sorry, I try to be green whenever possible, being first generation American of European parents that survived WWII, I am often appaled at the waste I often see, but please, quizzes like this give a false impression of doom and gloom. I know they are trying to jolt some sense into people, but lets jolt sense by facts not scare tactics. We want to teach, not just scare. |
RE: What's your eco footprint?- Great quiz!
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| like dee, i found the quiz is to narrow in its application it will show up the high end waster/users but it doesn't have enough variation to seperate those who are doing lots from those who are just living simpler than the high end users. i would like to see them ask more so that a truer picture can be derived, i was in a situation where i used a car once a week and there was no public transport or no other way than that but the question didn't allow for that variation. and also i was living in an eco' home where we used no power for cooling or no power/resources for heating yet the questions didn't accommodate those variants. yet someone who had 2 cars used an auto wash machine twice a week for 5 big loads and used fans and heating got less of a footprint than me with a lowley twin tub washer washing 3 small loads once a week. len |
Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page
RE: What's your eco footprint?- Great quiz!
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| I totally agree. I took that quiz several years ago and flabbergasted my friends by having a bigger footprint than they. One or two of those questions will automatically shoot you a big score now matter what. What killed me was the square footage of my home. It's quite large. But they didn't know we have retrofitted it fifty ways from sunday for energy conservation and we did go through the time and trouble to have a professional come and in and do an energy audit. Absolutely every appliance purchase we make and every modification on our home is thought out based on energy use. I even had a pitcher pump installed in my kitchen to pull up our spring water so I could by-pass the electric pump when I wanted to. I use it more than the faucet. The other thing impacting my score was a twice yearly trip to England to see my kids. Nevermind that a week could go by when I didn't even turn the key on my car's ignition and my business is home based. It is a nice little quiz to get one's attention and start people thinking. Those of us who would frequent a forum like this, however, would be better served with a more in-depth survey. |
RE: What's your eco footprint?- Great quiz!
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| Yes, I agree, the quiz has uncomfortable places for me, too. calliope's point that it is meant to start people thinking hits the mark. Frankly, I don't see how my family is going to continue greening our lives without getting squeezed someplace. The combination of Global Warming/climate change and approaching peak oil are sure to make a dent in my lifestyle, and other's,too. I guess I'd rather get exposed to some ideas that I don't like now, rather than getting blindsided later when there might not be resources or time to work around them. |
RE: What's your eco footprint?- Great quiz!
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| Interesting quiz, esp for just a few questions. Used to be "8" when living in NYC, w/ 2 roomies. Now "15" in SLC w/ 1 kid & DH. Nothing's perfect but I suspect one reason being vegan earns you a better (though not perfect) score is the intricate environmental impact of eating meat/dairy. Pretty substantial, from what I've read. (BTW, we're not exactly vegan here either, so can't exactly climb a soapbox!) The biggest impact of the quiz for me is the reminder that even when cutting housing, food, & transportation, most of us in the west still need "more than one planet." We just plain use more than our share of the world's resources, even on a good day. When I lived an "8" I still needed more planets! |
stepping in other shoes
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| Okay, took the quiz again 2x, in Beijing & Cairo, in the footsteps of folks I've met there in the past (guzzling airplane fuel, of course). In each case, I only needed one planet. Having indeed had peeks into daily life there I can clearly see why scores in those cities were 1 point something. Not saying it's a perfect test but again, I think the quiz takes a pretty interesting snapshot. Tried in another couple cities about the globe & found the numbers in line with my impressions visiting (guzzling more gas...). The explanations are pretty interesting, particularly the importance of shared impact & our responsibility to better direct government decision-making. Would probably inspire spirited classroom discussions in my area. |
Here is a link that might be useful: eco footprint, explanations
RE: What's your eco footprint?- Great quiz!
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| you need to remember that the "footprint" takes into account the general consumption level of the country, including the massive inputs in infrastructure, which includes a lot of carbon waste in truck deliveries for nearly everything .... you may only use a small amount of fuel, but it's available to you on every street corner .... you may only use a small amount of electricity, but it's likely produced by a coal burning plant the point being made by the quiz is how you compare to the general rating of your country, and that you could do better if the whole system undergoes some changes Bill |
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