Myfootprint.org offers a free quiz that will calculate your Ecological Footprint. Perhaps you've heard of a carbon footprint. This quiz looks not only at your carbon footprint, but it also takes into account food, housing, and goods & services footprints. According to the website, we are currently overshooting the Earth's biological capacity by 50%! No es bueno.
I took the quiz, and was mildly disappointed with my own results. Keep in mind, I almost always take public transportation, I eat a largely vegetarian diet, I get my food from a co-op farm for half the year, and I try to be very aware of household products and recycling practices. My footprint in all four categories was significantly below the national average.
However, I still scored over two Earths on the quiz! (If it's not clear what I mean by that, take the quiz and you'll see what I'm saying.) So where did I go wrong? Air travel. The carbon footprint of an airplane flight is massive, and if you take a couple of flights per year, you're starting way behind.
Obviously, the first thing you have to do is avoid flying when it's possible. Of course, if business takes you to Europe, it's not going to be practical to do anything but fly.
I'm sorta hoping they come up with a Star Trek-style beaming machine that will make transportation easier and less environmentally impactful. Is there a machine like that yet?
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