Personal ecological footprint

“As far as I'm concerned, I have no brother.”

“Well, motor oil makes a better looking slick on the water.”

“I think bird makes a point... isn't it funny that soooo many people have dissappeared from say the Bermuda Triangle. How about all of those socks that dissappear from sooo many dryers every year... the environmentalist movement has been working heroically to make a difference but nothing has changed! I think it is finally becoming clear! the Earth is striking back, now I'm unsure of whether this is a plot from aliens (ala Plan 9 from Outer Space), or just the earth itself. I think that Bird2Tiny, Marvin, and Ed Wood may be (or have been) misunderstood genius's with the potential to save the world!”

“Marvy would you mind filling my cup?”

“Oooooooh, a battle of wits between two half-witted trolls!

Give it up bird2tiny, YOU HAVEN'T got a CHANCE. You are OUTWITTED by Marvy.”

“A battle of wits???? Both Marvin and Bird are unarmed......”

“YOUR TOTAL FOOTPRINT is 230.42 acres.

IN COMPARISON
Your footprint measures 914.59% of an average North American's footprint and 3.65% of an average MEC Eco-Footprint Calculation (based on average results from this calculator).

Hence, it requires 124.72 Earths to support each member of the present human population at your standard of living.



let grill some kittens!”

“Hey Rad, what's this fixation you and Nigel have with kittens?

And Birdy, it's 'ecological footprint,' not 'pathological footprint.'

(no offense, Vann)


Is that you, Conrad?



"You Gotta Be Sincere!"”

“Aero, the post about the dogs is hilarious!”

“Dogs rule!”

“dogs aren't as tender.”

“I, stikmon, singlehandedly, have doome this and 16 other planets...YES!!! 44.86!!!! hahaha, I am shiva...destroyer of planets...die, die, DIE!!!”

“Here's an "ecological footprint" estimator I found today (courtesy treehugger.com). Haven't tried the one mentioned in the first post on this thread, but I will in a few minutes.

This estimator says I use 24 acres. Not sure how useful this is since it asks about some resources on the personal level (i.e. miles driven by you), but others on the household level (i.e. house size). Sounds to me like mixing apples and oranges.

http://www.myfootprint.org/”

“And the calculator mentioned at the beginning of this thread says I use 26.6.”

“It gave me 24 acres, too - precisely average for my country.”

“It gave me 22, 2 less than the average for my county.”

“Seven acres for me.”

“25 acres or 5.7 planets if everyone lived like me”

“16.

So, when do I get my 16 acres?”

“25 The lack of public transit in my area killed me.

I'd be at 13 if I had a public transit system I could use.
last edited: 11/17/05 11:17:47 AM”

“That is what saved me.”

“There's no public transit in my area and I got 17.

Oh wait, if I answer all the questions exactly the same way, but say I live in India, my footprint shrinks to 11 acres!

Oh wait, if I answer all the questions exactly the same way, but say I live in Kenya, my footprint shrinks to 6.75 acres! Amazing!”

“That's it, I'm moving all my posessions and job to Kenya.”

“I got a 20...found it interesting it said.."if everyone lived like you we'd need 4.4 plants"..that quantifies 20 a little better”

“I got 12 when do we get another 1.8 planets? Can we separate the Red vs. the Blue and put the undecided on the 0.8 planet.”

“15. We just lost our public transportation. It wasn't reliable to start anyways.”

“We do have public transportation in our town, but as I have detailed before, if you're interested in using it to go work at a regular 9-5 job, it's unsuited for that.”

“12 for me - woo hoo! I think I'll go out and eat a processed piece of meat from somewhere else to celebrate!”

“lol”

“I think the keys are miles per week driving and gas mileage. I drive less than 100 per week and get about 20 mpg. My other answers are not particularly "green." Well, our house is fairly small, so that probably helps.”

““I think the keys are miles per week driving and gas mileage. I drive less than 100 per week and get about 20 mpg. My other answers are not particularly "green." Well, our house is fairly small, so that probably helps.”
PowltryMan
2:56:51 PM
11/17/05
ignore this user

I think you're right. I drive 400 miles per week just to get to work with 27mpg. If I drop my mileage down one increment my acreage jumps to 32.”

“Just did the first quize and got 18.4”

“Oh boy, a thread about my favorite subject.

lets see 300 million Americans

2.3 billion acres in USA

yet these calculators figure the average American with an impacyt on what 10 to 20 acres?

there is not enough land, but wait we (and the other high consumers of the world) steal from the rest of the world

and we steal from history (in that for eons many acre-years of solar power was stored in the form of fossil fuels which we are rapidly depleting).

There is currently about 7 to 8 acres of land in the USA for each American

and only about 5 to 6 acres of land in the world for the average world person

and when considering good, arable, livable land the total in the world is less than 10 billion acres.

So how many people can be sustained for a long term? Far less than one/tenth of 6 billion people!
last edited: 11/17/05 3:09:07 PM”

“Eventually we will adapt or starve.”

“Really interesting to see the wide range of results for people here. I've thought of other reasons why I disagree with the calculations - like it assumes how much energy your house requires based on house size, family size, and the efficiency of your appliances. It doesn't factor in non-standard activities like wood heat. Yes, my house has propane and heat pump heat, but its rarely used because I keep the stove lit 98% of the time. Only exceptions are when we are away for more than a day, which is rare Oct-Mar. So that's a large chunk of fossil fuel I'm not using.

I also have a well, and while it does use fossil fuel in the form of electric to pump that water up, unlike municipal water systems I have almost zero water loss due to leaks (leaks = energy loss), no costs due to treatment of clear or black water, etc. So, I think I use less energy there than a city dweller.

Unlike many homes in the US, my home has lots of shade in the summer. So my A/C costs are muich lower than most. I could go on, but those are the biggest items. I think the calculators need more input variables and less generalizations.”

“My AC costs are really low, since we don't have (or need!) AC!!”