What is YOUR ecological footprint?

[Tahuti]

6.41 Earths

'Straya #1

 

[civvver]

5.46 earths.

I think it's biased against suburbanites. For example, I drive very little compared to everyone else I know (under 12000 miles per year and mainly with other people), have a 3 person family living in a 1200 sq ft 3 bedroom home with a small yard, we recycle everything, conserve water and electricity. We do not live extravagantly. The only thing really bad on the list was we don't shop at farmer's markets and junk, it's pretty much all supermarkets and restaurants for us. But other than that we live very efficiently compared to my friends who drive two cars to work, never recycle, live in 3000 sq foot mansions etc. Apparently we're all supposed to live in carboard boxes and grow our own food or the earth will die.

 

[classical_hero]

Apparently we would need 6.46 earths for me. mainly due to my diet, but that is due to the fact that plenty of things make me sick and thus I try to avoid them, meaning right now I mostly eat meat for every meal, but if I could eat less meat, especially for breakfast I would, but other breakfast options are no good for me. But quite frankly I don't drive that much and I do my best to recycle. But one thing I noticed they missed is about air-conditioning in the summer, since that is far more relevant for me that heating in winter, since really al we need to do here is put on an extra layer of clothes and we are warm enough to survive our mild winters. Most people who come here during winter notice how it is more like spring weather where they are from. Heating is not much a concern, but cooling is and that wasn't mentioned.

 

[Tee Kay]

'Straya #1

Oh yeah right, that, so driving + flying + getting electricity from the dirtiest coal on Earth


STRAYA indeed

Apparently we're all supposed to live in carboard boxes and grow our own food or the earth will die.

See, I realise this is all very unsustainable, but I'm unwilling to give up a modern technologically-advanced, not-dying-at-30 lifestyle. That's why I'm an environmentalist. None of that tree-hugging stuff; it's purely selfishness. We need to push clean energy and move beyond a fossil-fuelled economy so I can fly cheap aeroplanes around the continent in good conscience.

 

[El_Machinae]

It's brutal. We need a lot of help making changes that get the suburbs sustainable. You can see that recycling and carpooling might not be enough.

 

[shadowplay]

I refuse to take this test since it says to pick a language and I don't speak American, I speak English. But what exactly are their guidlines for the test?

Yeah, this pissed me off too! God save the Queen!

 

[Phrossack]

It's brutal. We need a lot of help making changes that get the suburbs sustainable. You can see that recycling and carpooling might not be enough.

The suburbs have to go. Even if houses become more energy-efficient, even if we have only self-driving hydrogen or electric cars, the suburbs are still toxic. They take up a huge amount of land, they're far from everything and so cars are a necessity, and everyone needs to drive dozens or hundreds of miles a week to do daily errands and go to work. They practically require residents to travel a few miles to the grocery store, load up on a week's worth of frozen, processed foods, and stock them in their giant, energy-wasting fridges. They prevent more efficient methods of transportation like buses, bikes, trains, and walking. Suburban homes are too big and waste huge amounts of power on heating and cooling. And the more people want to live in the suburbs, the more wilderness gets obliterated to set up yet another cookie-cutter neighborhood or strip mall or parking lot.

 

[Zelig]

It's brutal. We need a lot of help making changes that get the suburbs sustainable. You can see that recycling and carpooling might not be enough.

Dramatically more expensive gasoline.

I work from home probably 75% of the time and drive to work the rest of the time.

With the current price of gas ($2.50/day), the cost of buying a decent road bicycle (say $1k) takes a long time (4 years if I bike to work twice a week) to break even with gasoline. I'd get a bike this week if I could break even within a year.

 

[Tee Kay]

they're far from everything and so cars are a necessity

I agree it's an annoyance (on good days) that everything's so far away but the worst impact of cars is the carbon they emit. No carbon (renewable!electric/hydrogen/biofuels as per your best-case scenario) and I don't see cars as being so bad tbh.

 

[Phrossack]

I agree it's an annoyance (on good days) that everything's so far away but the worst impact of cars is the carbon they emit. No carbon (renewable!electric/hydrogen/biofuels as per your best-case scenario) and I don't see cars as being so bad tbh.

Also the manufacture of cars, the resource extraction required for them, the burden of car insurance on drivers, the division and destruction of natural habitats with roads, the encouragement of suburban living, the huge death toll from car accidents (probably will reduce with self-driving cars, but that's a long ways off and debatable), etc, etc. Cars suck for a LOT of reasons.

And improving cars will just ensure that they, and suburbia, will stick around longer, and as I've outlined, suburbia is irredeemable in terms of sustainability.

 

[El_Machinae]

Yeah. I can see the need to reduce the total numbering suburb homes. But, remember, there are hosts of people who think they're entitled. And so, there's a second push needed to make the remaining suburb homes more sustainable. So, we need help. Gotta ask the suburbanites to help push us there.

 

[illram]

4.14 earths. I apparently use 160.65 global acres. Sorry for destroying the earth everyone. And I am way way below national US averages, apparently...

I did learn that San Francisco uses almost 50% renewable energy, which is pretty cool.

 

[Tee Kay]

Yeah. I can see the need to reduce the total numbering suburb homes. But, remember, there are hosts of people who think they're entitled. And so, there's a second push needed to make the remaining suburb homes more sustainable. So, we need help. Gotta ask the suburbanites to help push us there.

Yeah, people like me who grew up in suburbia took spacious houses with backyards and the ability to go on roadtrip holidays for granted.

(Well, I didn't always grew up in suburbia, but everyone in that other neighbourhood aspired to suburbian living. It's an aspiration thing. I think there's a lot, a lot more we can do to make cities more attractive for living in but you'll always have those suburban aspirations there)

There's one silver lining; suburban roofs are great for solar panels, and they're spreading rapidly around Australia at the moment. And since the worst aspects of suburbia are all about energy usage, this goes a long way.

 

[Zelig]

I honestly don't get how people deal with commuting where they can't read or do other productive stuff on the ride.

I spent a few months of daily ~1 hour commuting, and it was crushing my soul. Not to mention that the annual marginal cost (without counting externalities) of a 30-minute each way commute to an average job with an average car is about $10k.

 

[Commodore]

4.87 for me.

Although I think most of it is because of circumstances that are currently outside of my control. Right now we live in a pretty old apartment building that isn't made out of any energy efficient materials and doesn't have energy efficient appliances. We also live in an area that relies on very high carbon emission producing coal plants.

 

[Tee Kay]

I honestly don't get how people deal with commuting where they can't read or do other productive stuff on the ride.

It's pretty bad. Then again, I lived my early life in Bangkok, so Melbourne traffic is heavenly bliss by comparison.

I listen to radio or music, usually.

 

[Antilogic]

It's brutal. We need a lot of help making changes that get the suburbs sustainable. You can see that recycling and carpooling might not be enough.

This. Even if people are making decent lifestyle choices in the suburbs, they are really energy inefficient by design.

I got 3.01 earths; although I live efficiently my score is crippled by air travel for interviews, conferences, family visits, etc. I don't know how accurate the 8ish% renewable energy figure is for New England, that could be a source of error as well.

 

[Verbose]

1,84 here. Probably due to recycling being fairly easy, buying 100% non-offending electricity, and being mostly vegetarian. The cars and the driving + some air travel gets me.

 

[CavLancer]

.45 Earths.

"Congratulations, you are living an ecologically conscientious lifestyle.
If everyone lived like you do, we would need only 0.45 Earths."

All the power here is hydro. Sold our van and now take a bus. Plan on another vehicle in the future though. I'm sure we were more Earths last year. Plan on a real effort to catch up with you guys.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

3.6 Earths is my footprint. Or should I say foodprint. It's the the meat at every meal.

The quiz is quite California-centric. The way they obsess about water.

Spoiler :

Actually, I wonder if the quiz takes other choices into account. I live in an apartment, but I'm not sure if it's still counting gardening footprints.