My Ecological Footprint

So tomorrow is Earth Day. And yesterday, I read an interesting article in the Star-Ledger about ecological footprints. An ecological footprint is basically the mark you leave on our planet. You can take the quiz to see how much land and water you need to support what you use and discard. Before reading the article in the newspaper, I didn't think I'd do too bad. I'm a vegetarian. (Sorry to do this, Meat-Eaters. But check out this link to see how horrific factory farming really is for the environment. Not to mention animal rights. But I digress.) I recycle. Though my car isn't a hybrid, its not a gas-guzzling monster. I'm always trying to do more. Or should I say do less damage on the environment. I just bought a new refillable water bottle and a Brita pitcher for Eric's house so I don't have to create more senseless waste with those single serving water bottles. Inspired by Becky's post on using canvas bags, I'm going to try to use less of the throwaway plastic bags and canvas-bag-it myself at the grocery store from now on.

So this quiz asks you fifteen questions. How far do you commute on a weekly basis? Do you drive a car, a motorbike or use use your own two feet primarily? What kind of mileage does your car get? Where do you live? Whats the size of your home? Free-standing or apartment? Running water? Unfortunately living in a place like the USA brings down your score because we're just the worst when it comes to things like global warming and polluting. Another question asks about where your food comes from? Is it packaged and processed or locally grown?

So I didn't do too well. I did horribly, actually. Here are my results:

CATEGORY GLOBAL ACRES
FOOD 3.5
MOBILITY 5.4
SHELTER 6.4
GOODS/SERVICES 10.9
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 26


IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 GLOBAL ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXISTS 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 5.9 PLANETS.

Shudder. This is scary! Being that tomorrow is Earth Day, here are some things that I can do to do better. Isn't that what its about? Just doing a couple extra things every day that will make a difference.

1. Start using energy-efficient lightbulbs.
2. Start canvas-bagging it like I mentioned up above.
3. Buy more locally-grown produce. I used to belong to a really cool co-op called Purple Dragon. You can find one near you if you live in the NJ area. You can join one and every two weeks, you pick up a delivery of locally-grown (inasmuch as possible) organic produce. Yum! The best thing about it was that you never know what kind of fruits and veggies you're getting until a couple days before the shipment! Once I was happily surprised with a head of purple cauliflower! Maybe I should rejoin...

Its a short list to start with but I think making small changes in your day-to-day routine is what counts. So tomorrow's Earth Day. Do something. And why not make every day Earth Day?