I give up blogger. You win. You can make this section all caps if you want, just leave the rest of my post alone. Okay? Thanks. Bye.
In my semi-mindless twitter reading tonight I checked out a link that Anna over at And Then She Saved posted. The website calculated your approximate environmental footprint based on aspects of your lifestyle such as climate, housing size, purchasing preferences, diet, spending habits, etc...
I'm quite interested in that sort of thing, so I bit, and I ran my figures:
If everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle, we would need:
= 4.51 Earths
Ouch.
I knew I needed to make some changes, but 4.51 Earths? Yikes.
That hurts.
I'm sorry Earth.
I tried running it again based on making some fairly substantial changes while still living in my house. ie: no car, giving up meat, adding solar panels to the house, buying all organic, etc...
If everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle, we would need:
= 1.03 Earths
Better. Not good, but better.
That 0.03 of an Earth means that I am still living the high life. Their housing selections change in 500 sqft increments, and my place is at the low end of my category. Maybe that would make up the 0.03? I can hope.
Then I got thinking again (I really gotta stop doing that)
What do my former colleague's footprints look like? I know some guys who live pretty high on the hog, and couldn't care less about the environment. I plugged in some values to approximate their living arrangements, just to see:
If everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle, we would need:
= 15.24 Earths
*cough*
*STARE*
*cough cough*
I don't even know what to say about that.
Anyway, while I doubt I'll be able to convince a bunch of construction and oil field workers to give up their trucks, move into shoebox sized apartments and take on a vegan lifestyle, what I can do is focus on my own consumption habits and lead by example. I can be more mindful of what I use, what I purchase, and making what I have last longer.
It's like frugality all wrapped up in a nice little save the environment bow.
Pretty.
I can start by going to sleep on time. Less time awake at night means less time the lights are on. That and I can put my computer to sleep and unplug it rather than just closing the lid.
Little steps add up the same way big ones do. One at a time.
How many Earths do you use?
