April 22, 2009 - Earth Day - What's Your Footprint?

It's Earth Day, everyone! Do you know your "global footprint"? I decided to publish mine (stats typed below or enlarge the cool images).

If everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle, we would need: 3.25 Earths US AVERAGE 6.35

My footprint in Global Acres by Consumption Category:

Carbon Footprint: Mine=49.1 Average (US)= 91.4

Food Footprint: Mine= 31.7 Average (US)=65.7

Housing Footprint: Mine=9.2 Average (US): 31.6

Goods and Services Footprint: Mine=36.3 Average (US)=57.7

You can take the quiz and calculate your footprint here:

http://www.myfootprint.org/

Earth Day is all about awareness and action. Some interesting headlines from the day and a summation of the articles below...all taken from the Colorado Daily, mostly quoted...I claim no authorship.

STUDY: SPAM'S BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
McAfee Inc. found spammers generated 62 trillion junk emails in 2008 that wasted enough electricity to power 2.4 million US homes for a year.
The carbon footprint? The report concluded that the electricity needed to process a single spam message results in .3 grams of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere - the equivalent of driving 3 feet in a car.

NCAR SAYS THE WORLD'S RIVERS ARE SHRINKING
The flow of water has declined over the past half century with significant changes in about 1/3 of the world's large rivers and a 14% decrease in the Columbia in the Pacific Northwest. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) analyzed 925 major rivers between 1948-2004. The reduction in inflow to the Pacific Ocean alone was about equal to shutting off the Mississippi River.
The Arctic had the only significant increase, where warming conditions are increasing the snow and ice melt.
The point is, freshwater resources are likely to decline. Dams and the diversion of water for agriculture and industry are also factors.

ZERO WASTE GOES ZERO-TO-60 IN NINE YEARS
EcoCycle executive director Eric Lombardi said in 2000, "Imagine a world where all products and packaging are recyclable, reusable, or compostable." Nine years later, on Earth Day 2009, even the [University of Colorado] Buffs' home football games and the county fair are waste free. EcoCycle is hosting the Zero Waste Business and Community Awards with finalists ranging from REI to Summit Middle School here in Boulder.

There's a lot of bad news, but also a lot of good being done for the environment. While it's strange to think that some people and businesses don't even try to recycle, that's one extreme. Nine years ago, as the article says, zero waste was a wacky idea that was too idealistic. What wacky ideas do we have today that can be realized in nine years (or less)?