When I was in Amsterdam, my friend Saander told me about a website that computes your ecological footprint. Your ecological footprint is a composite of the amount of land that it takes to sustain your lifestyle.
I've been riding a bike a good bit, and I've walked for years, so I figured I would do pretty well in this little quiz. Unfortunately I was dead wrong. According to the website, there are about 4.5 biologically productive acres available per person. Living and travelling the way I do, it takes approximately 15 acres of land to sustain me. If everybody in the world lived like me, we would need 3.4 planets!!!
If that isn't crazy enough, I am reading my results with the very real understanding that I'm not the norm. Most people drive much more than I do, and use many more resources. In fact, the average American needs about 24 acres to sustain their way of life.
Because of my way of life, it seems that others must go without. In order for others to have more, I need to yield more. It's pretty scary to think about the implications of this from the perspective of faith. God has entrusted us with an earth full of resources, and yet a few of us are using up a large amount of those resources.
Take the test and leave a comment--what's your ecological footprint?
1 comment:
My Ecological Footprint (Estimated results from the Ecological Footprint Quiz)
CATEGORY GLOBAL HECTARES
FOOD 1.1
MOBILITY 0.3
SHELTER 1.3
GOODS/SERVICES 1.7
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 4.4
IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY (NETHERLANDS) IS 4.8 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2.4 PLANETS.
I’m afraid my ecological footprint will grow considerably this year. I will have to travel a bit for my work and for leisure as well.
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