2007-10-16

Your impact on the planet

Consumer Consequences | Sustainability Coverage From American Public Media is a "game" of sorts I recently found that calculates your ecological footprint [wikipedia].

It's a fun resource and a real eye-opener. Even though both LK and I are pretty environmentally conscientious, we each still scored 1.9 Earths before "changing policies" (you'll learn what that means after playing the game) and 1.7 Earths after changing policies!

The real advantage to trying this out is that you will see what areas of your life have the most impact (e.g. the amount of meat and dairy I eat). So give it a try and see how many Earths it would take if everyone lived like you.

Here's an excerpt from the Consumer Consequences main page:
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Consumer Consequences will ask you a series of questions about your lifestyle, and as you play, it will show you how many "Earths" of natural resources it would take to sustain all 6.6 billion humans… if everyone lived like you.

Keep an eye on the background graphics of your in-game world as you play. They'll slide across the screen like theater scrims as you answer questions to illustrate what your "world" of consumption would look like. They'll reflect the waste you produce… the infrastructure (commercial, residential, industrial and transportation) you require… the energy (fossil, nuclear, and renewable) you consume… and how your lifestyle impinges on forests and other undeveloped land.

The impact of your lifestyle is calculated based on the "ecological footprint" model created by our research partner, Redefining Progress. Learn more about ecological footprinting or about the calculations that underlie Consumer Consequences.
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