In honor of Earth Day, I thought I would take the time to measure my ecological footprint via the Earth Day Network website. I’d like to think that I’m pretty environmentally conscious. I’ve done quite a bit to make my big old house more energy efficient. My husband and I try to make it a point to recycle almost everything. We try to buy local, organic foods, etc.
The quiz was pretty cool. You start off by choosing your country and avatar. There are a few simple questions, and the avatar walks through a virtual community as you answer questions. The first question was around how much dairy/eggs you consume. I indicated my love for meat (mmmm, bacon), and a meat store fell from the sky. When I indicated that I try to buy local organic foods, a market fell next to the meat store. And, so on. In the end, the quiz measures how many planets are required to support your lifestyle.
Apparently, if everyone lived like me, we’d need 5.4 Planet Earths to provide enough resources. While I didn’t think this was a great score, I discovered that America scored an 8.0 as a whole in 2007 (the latest data I found on the site). Certainly, we can do better than this. When I clicked on the link to find out what I could do to lessen my footprint, it gave me three suggestions that barely changed my score. In fact, the suggestions, like eating less meat (not gonna happen), didn’t even make my score less than 5. So, I guess I’m not doing so bad.
Take the quiz and let me know how you did in the comments section. I’m curious to see how others score.
Happy Earth Day!
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