My wife, Karen, and I pride ourselves on living lightly. But according to the BBC Disposable Planet quiz, we don’t live nearly as lightly as I thought. Developed by Mathis Wackernagel, one of the originators of
ecological footprinting, the quiz uses national data and lifestyle information to estimate the number of planets that would be needed to sustain life if everyone on Earth lived as you do.
National data on average U.S. consumption indicates that if everyone on Earth lived like average Americans, we would need 5.3 planets to support us all.
Ecological footprint quiz results.
Take the quiz. You’ll be surprised. If you’re an American, it’ll probably be easier for you to calculate your ecological footprint using the
Redefining Progress model (which uses Imperial measurements).
I thought, because I have to eat a lot more meat than I am accustomed to as a result of my kidney failure, my quiz results would skew toward the American average. I was disturbed to learn that while my meat consumption certainly didn’t help, my housing footprint accounted for the largest portion of my total ecological footprint.
This was a surprising finding because Karen and I pride ourselves in living in a small space. Our townhome is exceptionally energy efficient and its total area is less than 1,500 square feet including our living space and two offices. Even though our ecological footprint is 47.8% of the American average, there is a lot of room for improvement. If everyone in the world lived like me, we would need 3.6 planets.
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