Wednesday · April 21 2004
My ecological footprint is about a size 22 EEE in a leather wingtip.
“If everyone lived like you, we would need 5.8 planets.” Not good.
I'm 20 acres/4.5 planets. But that will change since I'm going to start eating meat and eggs at every meal, including snacks. I will also start producing more waste than my average neighbor. Yes, those 2 ideas are tied together.
You're going on the Atkins diet? Or just trying to cut the carbo addiction?
I think I could be a couple acres smaller, but I have to drive to work. No reasonable public trans option exists.
I'm 16 acres, 3.6 planets. My less-than-daily meat eating and preference for walking/public transportation helped a lot.
What exactly do you have to do to get a result of 1 planet or less? Granted, I am an excessive-consuming, car-driving, meat-eating American, and I have a TON of room to improve, but at some point, can we just say there's too many damn people?
I retook the test pretending I was an Amish farmer with 8 kids. No car, no electricity, no running water, sometimes eat cows. Still needed 1.3 planets.
Hella better than me, but we best start colonizing the moon or having less babies if this quiz is accurate.
4 kids, Atlanta climate (less heat and a/c) and no electricity or running water will getcha one planet. I was skeptical too. Basically, you DO have to be an Amish farmer ...
You can actually get pretty close to 1 planet without living like an Amish farmer, but it still is very hard. Originally i got a score of 16 acres, but I just re-took it with changes i felt were possible, but difficult and got a 7 acre score. I would have to be Vegan and eat locally grown produce, live in a "green" design (1500SF) in Chicago, and take public transit and bicycles everywhere.
And yes, there are too many people.
I don't have any kids yet, so at least I'm doing my part with respect to one world issue: population control.
The biggest factor is cohabitating, though.
I am vegetarian and drive my car under 100 miles a week, but I get 8-something planets. 8! If I keep all my answers the same but say I have two people in my home, I go down to five planets.
So now I get to add not having a roommate to my environment guilt list.