RE: [pf] Are you an Ecological Bigfoot?

by David MacClement

22 June 2000 00:38 UTC

This morning, at 08:08 22/6/2000 +1200, I wrote to another list:

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At 15:46 9/6/2000 +1200, Christiaan Briggs wrote:
>Be interested to see what David MacClement scores on this.
>
>earlier, Rod Donald MP wrote:
>
>> Are You an Eco-Bigfoot? Calculate the Ecological Footprint of Your
>> Lifestyle
>

** Starting with:
http://www.earthday.net/Footprint/index.asp
  I got an estimate of my personal ecological footprint, in a process defined by Ritik Dholakia & Mathis Wackernagel.

** The following are some comments on the questions which sometimes don't allow the formula to accept my low numbers. So I'm noticeably lower than their 82% result. (Or other species could have a lot more than the 18% of the biosphere everyone-living-like-me would allow.)

** On the Food page:

How would you describe your average daily food intake?

A   much less than average (2400 or less kcal per day)
  [In 1996, the nutritionist John Birkbeck estimated that my food energy intake was 5500 kilojoules (~1300 kcal) per day. Since that estimate, I'm now drinking 50% more milk.]

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** On the Transportation page:

Q5. Miles Driven per Year
The average American drives about 8,500 miles per year, or about 17,000 miles per car. Since not all Americans own cars, most automobile-owning Americans will drive more than 8,500 miles.
Given these averages and your driving habits, how much do you drive each year, on average? (either as a driver or passenger)

G   3000 km or fewer (60 km per week or fewer)
[My zero was not an option.]

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Q6. Ride Sharing
On average, how often do you drive with someone else (either in your car or theirs)?

F   Almost all the time [to cut down the above]

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Q8.Public Transportation
On average, how many miles do you travel on public transportation (bus, rail) each week?

D   25-40 km per week (5 km per day) [actually less, but I do use it]

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YOUR RESULTS:

Food Footprint	0.8 hectares or	2.0 acres
Transportation Footprint	0.1 hectares or	0.4 acres
Housing Footprint	0.4 hectares or	0.9 acres
Other Footprints	0.5 hectares or	1.2 acres
	------------	---------
Total Footprint per person	1.8 hectares or	4.5 acres

IN COMPARISON:

Your Eco-Footprint measures 17.7 % of an average American Footprint.

Worldwide, the biologically productive space available per person is 2.2 hectares or 5.4 acres.

[So with /no/ set-aside for other species (see below), I use 82% of my share of the biosphere. D.]

Now, choose: How much of the biosphere should be set aside for other species? 50 %   (The Brundtland Commission suggested to increase the set aside area to a meager 12 %)
Your choice means the following: You maintain that every person should be able to live a satisfying life within an average of 1.1 hectares or 2.7 acres.
Hence, if only half the earth was available for human-use-or-modification, it would require 1.6 Earths to support each member of the present human population at your standard of living.

[Conversely, each member of the present human population could be supported at my standard of living by our 1.0 Earth, leaving 18% to be set aside for other species.]

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[now, at midday (on Thurs. 22 June) : ]

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** I recently found Dr Birkbeck's Feb.1996 report on my diet. It's now on my DsMenu page:

http://www.emucities.com.au/member/davd/dsmenu.html
  or:
http://www.oocities.org/RainForest/6783/dsmenu.html#top

** Secondly, that calculation gave:

>
>YOUR RESULTS:  
> Food Footprint              0.8 hectares or   2.0 acres 
> Transportation Footprint    0.1 hectares or   0.4 acres 
> Housing Footprint           0.4 hectares or   0.9 acres 
> Other Footprints            0.5 hectares or   1.2 acres 
>   
> Total Footprint per person  1.8  hectares or  4.5 acres 
>   
> Worldwide, the biologically productive space
>  available  per person  is  2.2  hectares or  5.4 acres.
>

** Since it's based on: "The average American eats approximately 3000 kilo-calories (kcal) every day", I believe the Housing Footprint assumes winter heating (and probably some amount of summer air-conditioning).

** But I use /no/ winter heating even though everyone else around us in the Auckland area does. And of course no air-conditioning.

** Also, I do /no cooking/, use cold-water-wash, have bought no clothes for a decade, and we four live in a 30-year-old cheap house.

** So I would guess that my actual footprint includes not 0.9 hA but 0.45 hA for those two categories. I actually believe it's less, but I'm being conservative here.

** Therefore my footprint is below 1.4 hA. (c.f. 2.2 hA available)

** This is less than 65% of my "share", with /no/ set-aside for other species.

** Conversely, each member of the present human population could be supported at my standard of living by our 1.0 Earth, leaving 35% to be set aside for other species.

** That's what it would take for our over-6-billion humans to be fair to all other living things.

David.
(David MacClement) zn.oc.guhi @ dvad (reversed)
http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Delphi/3142/Pg1-AD11.html
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