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| Ecology Footprint Quiz |
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The current hottest books on trees and forests.
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For three years my Ecology footprint was about 80% of the average for the USA; but that is still more than 3 times the world average, and denies me the right to say:
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Ego eximo minime carbo carbonis
['I have a small carbon footprint'] as rendered into Latin by Environmental Ethicist Don Maier]. |
Here are the summary data - click on the year to get details. Better yet, try it yourself: check the Earth Day footprint program just like some friends tried it.
| Year | My footprint
(Acres) | USA average footprint
(Acres per person) | Mine as % of USA average | My footprint
(Hectares) | World average
(Hectares per person) | Mine as % of world average |
| 2003
Earth Day program | 20 acres | 24 acres | 83%
but only 40% with the ZSEF | 8.1 hectares | 2.8 hectares | 289%
but maybe under 140% with the ZSEF |
| 2002
Redefining Progress program | 26 acres | 31 acres | 84% | 10 hectares | ?3.1 hectares (estimated by pro-rating
2001 and 2003) | 323% |
| 2001
LEAD program | 18.5 acres | 25 acres | 74% | 7.5 hectares | 2.4 hectares | 312% |
Note: (1) Each year the quiz was at a different web location and the questions were slightly different.
So the formula would have been different too, introducing a little erraticism into the absolute values.
I believe the percentages are more reliable than the absolute data. And that
the results shown below
where
many people took the 2003 quiz
are comparable.
(2) 1 hectare = 2.47 acres.
Dang. My percentage appears to be increasing. As these programs are from different web sites each year, some variation may be differences in what data are collected and what formulae manipulate them. However, I would expect an increase from 2001 to 2003, as I began to eat meat (about 3 oz per day).
The worldwide average footprint of 2.4 hectares (6 acres) per person exceeds the available acreage. I don't know what that means but it sounds dangerous. It sounds like the world is overpopulated
2003
Results using
Earth Day footprint program:
| Type of footprint | My Acres | USA average (Acres per person) |
| Food | 4.7 acres | |
| Transportation (mobility) | 0.5 acres | |
| Housing (shelter) | 8.9 acres | |
| Other footprint (goods and service) | 6.4 acres | |
| Total | 20 acres | 24 acres |
This puts me at 83% of average. But I'm only 40% when I include the
Zimmerman Shadow
Ecology Footprint!
The Earth Day site said:
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Worldwide, there exist 4.5 biologically productive acres per person.
If everyone lived like you, we would need 5.8 planets. |
2002
Results using footprint program (at that time it was at Redefining Progress):
| Type of footprint | My Acres | My Hectares | USA average (Acres per person) |
| Food | 4 acres | 2 hectares | |
| Transportation (mobility) | 5 acres | 2 hectares | |
| Housing (shelter) | 10 acres | 4 hectares | |
| Other footprint (goods and service) | 7 acres | 2 hectares | |
| Total | 26 acres | 10 hectares | 31 acres |
The Redefining Progress site said:
| Your footprint is 84% of the USA average. |
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Worldwide, there exist 5 biologically productive acres per person.
If everyone lived like you, we would need 5 planets. |
2001
The Redefining Progress led to the Ecology Footprint Quiz through the
British
Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD). These are my results:
| Type of footprint | My Acres | My Hectares | USA average
(Hectares per person) | World average
(Hectares per person) |
| Food | 3.3 acres | 1.3 hectares | 2.9 hectares | |
| Transportation | 2.6 acres | 1.0 hectares | 2.1 hectares | |
| Housing | 7.6 acres | 3.1 hectares | 2.5 hectares | |
| Other footprint | 5.0 acres | 2.0 hectares | 2.7 hectares | |
| Total | 18.5 acres | 7.5 hectares | 10.2 hectares | 2.4 hectares |
That put me at 74%.
They asked you how much of the biosphere should be set aside for other species. I said 80%.
Based on my above results, their model said:
My response is:
It is obvious that the impact of people on the planet increases with population. But it was in 1998 that Yale economists William D. Nordhaus and Joseph Boyer first developed a model of the cost of the human population on future living standards. They found that:
| The lifetime cost of each person's impact on their environment was then about $100,000 in a high-income country. It fell with income, reaching $2500 per person in low-income countries. |
The Zimmerman Shadow Ecology Footprint.
Some friends wanted an "extra deduction for not having kids". Therefore, as the data start to come in from my friends, I have came up with the Zimmerman Shadow Ecology Footprint.
This Shadow Footprint is the shadow of additional load that is cast by people with children (because they are throwing a shadow of increased population into the future) and by people with larger pets. While there are many ways to create a different formula, this is the one that I am using:
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The estimated "shadow footprint" is the footprint cast by one's offspring
and pets.
The formula is: Zimmerman Shadow Ecology Footprint = "your footprint" * ( "# of your biological offspring" / 2 + ( total pet weight / your weight) / fudge-factor ) |
What is the "shadowed footprint" (the sum of the basic ecology footprint plus the ZSEF) for the average USA citizen? It comes to a value of "50-acres" for this footprint-with-shadow. Here's how.
USA citizens have a fertility of over-replacement, contributing to world population increase. So the average adult American shadow print is over 24 acres - say 26 acres - for the "kid component".
Then, given than some people have horses, many have dogs, pot-bellied pigs, etc., the average shadow print (I am guessing wildly) is say 2 for pets.
So the total is 52 ( = 24 + 26 + 2)
These are not actual acres; they are just for comparison purposes. And for easy comparison purposes, and given that all of this is very approximate (as in "smoke and mirrors"?), I am just going to call that "50", as any economist or statistician might do.
Results in 2003 by others, living in USA except as noted:
| id | Footprint
(Acres) | Zimmerman Shadow
Ecology Footprint (ZSEF) (Virtual acres) | Footprint with shadow
(Real and virtual acres) | Shadowed footprint
as % of average USA "50-acre" footprint-with-shadow |
| Scott (1 kid) | 6 acres | 3 | 9 | 18% |
| hc (1 dog) | 15 acres | 1 | 16 | 32% |
| mc (1 cat;
1 very small dog) | 17 acres | 1 | 18 | 36% |
| Joan | 20 acres | 0 | 20 | 40% |
| se (1 kid;
self-generates all electricity and contributes to grid) | 14 acres | 7 | 21 | 42% |
| co (1 small dog) | 22 acres | 1 | 23 | 46% |
| ha (2 kids) | 12 acres | 12 | 24 | 48% |
| ca | 24 acres | 0 | 24 | 48% |
| Ariadne
(Scotland)
(3 kids, 1 bunny) | 10 acres | 15 | 25 | 50% |
| hd | 32 acres | 0 | 32 | 64% |
| ma (1 kid) | 23 acres | 11.5 | 34.5 | 69% |
| hb
(2 kids,
1 big infertile dog) | 19 acres | 20 | 39 | 78% |
| ba (3 kids) | 16 acres | 24 | 40 | 80% |
| si (4 kids,
1 dog, 2 cats) | 19 acres | 39 | 58 | 116% |
| Arnold S.
(4 kids)
(minimum estimate) | 44 acres | 88 | 132 | 264% |
Here is clarification of some terms used in the tables above.
'Food' includes meat consumption, calorie consumption, food wastage, and locality of purchased food.
'Transportation' includes miles driven, ride sharing, fuel efficiency, use of public transportation, and air travel. The average car in the USA is driven (sit down, wait for it, ...) 17,000 (seventeen thousand) miles annually.
'Housing' includes size of the home (or for Republicans, homes) you live in, use of green electricity, and use of energy efficient appliances.
'Other' footprint depends on the quiz. It may include goods and services.
Range in 2003: "in some countries, the average is as low as 0.5 hectares (1.2 acres), while others use as much as 13 hectares (32 acres) per person. Even within any given country, individuals' footprints vary widely."
Try it! Remember that the source of the models and the comparative USA footprint varies year-to-year.
Fine print: Your mileage may vary; there is some rounding in the data.
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Forest and Tree Home,
Glossary pages: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, p, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. |
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| Report Copyright © 2003-2006 by Joan Zimmerman. |