My Ecological Footprint

Tim's Footprint Reults:

Carbon Footprint: Mine/43.8 Acres; U.S. Average/91.4 Acres

Food Footprint: Mine/65.7 acres; U.S. Average/65.7 acres

Housing Footprint: Mine/28.3 Acres; U.S. Average/31.6 Acres

Goods and Services Footprint: Mine/17.4 acres; U.S. Average 57.7 Acres

Total: 155.26 Global Acres

In other words, it would take the resources of 4.00 EARTHS if everyone on the planet lived as I do.

According to this site, the average united states resident lives a lifestyle that would require the resources of five earths.  I thought that was pretty outlandish, so I tested the site to see how honest they would be.  I went through and answered every question in the most environmentally friendly way possible, just to see if you could get below one earth.  Well, it turns out you can.  It spit out that we'd only need 0.39 earths.  Ok, so it sounds like it is possible.  I agree that many people use more resources than is necessary, and the world could not currently sustain such usage if it were more common.  What this doesn't take into accout, though, is that we will become better at producing food and the like with what we have, and that as more people gain the use of higher technology, production will increase as well.  Granted, there is only so much iron or aluminum on Earth, so we will eventually run out, but that will be hard to do.  

One thing that does concern me, though, is the space that is being used for trash.  There are very few ways to make trash dissapear once it has been generated.  I have heard, though, that there are some new factories that produce ZERO trash.  There isn't even a trash can in the place.  Thats very cool.

I think that Americans can be very much over the top.  My brother in law works for a landscaping company in Florida, and it is simply insane.  He helped with the landscaping on one house that had three tiers, each with its own swimming pool surrounded by palm trees that were paved in.  Another house had a garage with a turntable for all of the cars.  Yes, it would spin and spit out whatever car you wanted to drive from one place.  And they had more that one car, so they actually used it, too.  Disgusting.  

On the other side, my aunt owns a health food store, so I can definitely see the eco-friendly American as well.  There was one point where she was considering replacing part or all of the parking lot with grass-covered structurally sound pavers.  They just got solar panels installed on the roof, too.  Its a really neat place.

I think that Americans are capable of it, and the way things are moving right now we'll probably see a greener America in the near future.