Ecological Footprint

Despite the views of some forum members, I live a fairly green lifestyle - fairly self suffient in food (meat, veg and fruit), recycle everything, heating is a log burner using farm grown trees etc. This link, although UK centred,suggests I am destroying the planet :

www.thecarmarthenshirepartnership.org.uk...int%20Calculator.pdf

It appears that one must be a non-travelling, non-holidaying, frozen in winter, VEGAN (eating locally produced fresh food only), unread (no newspapers), second hand furniture buyer who lives in a flat with more than 5 other people but has no children, has less than 15kg of domestic waste weekly, does not have a dishwasher or a washing machine and recycles everything. If you choose to live like this 'then the human existence and the Earth would continue to prosper sustainably'

Come on then, be honest, do any of you lot qualify?

I don't

Apart from the no kids part , and less than 15kg of rubbish a week (we are lucky to fill one rubbish bag every 2 weeks), and recycling as much as we can...

Did the quiz, came out a couple of points over sustainable - but wasn't sure about a couple of the questions. The people per household was what sank us!!

This one here is a more comprehensive one... www.wastedtv.co.nz/index.cfm?&action=calculator

It is surely a little pointless taking a survey designed for another country and another lifestyle and wondering why you get odd results.

Don't agree Moggy - are you saying the underlying principles are different if you happen to live in NZ? The aim is to reduce the carbon footprint, yes? Nothing odd about the results, 95% of those living in 'the West' would get them?

However - I used Tigger's link - that gave me a carbon footprint of 10,000 sq metres. As I have about 100,000 sq metres I am obviously not utilising my allowance adequately - must take more overseas holidays

The questions are aimed at city dwellers, there are other ways to reduce your foot print when living rurually with land to raise animals and grow your own fruit and veg (no mention of either of those on the survey)
The forms of heating listed are not entirely applicable to NZ - no mention of wood as a sustainable option - eg when growing your own and not paying transport charges it is a lot more environmentally friendly than buying from non sustainable forests and transporting it loads of miles to your house.
Coal as a fuel source in NZ seems rare and what is used is mined in NZ I believe rather than imported as it is predominantly in the UK. Similarly gas is used a lot less.
Different climate means solar power here is a real option, not really an option in the UK.
In other words, what is a sustainable life for one culture may be exactly the opposite in another.
Eg us planting and chopping down trees not an issue, but try chopping down huge swathes of the rainforest is most definitely an issue.
Things have to be looked at in the correct context.

I would guess that 80% of the NZ population is urban but you are right that the survey is based on a very narrow mindset primarily based on consumption reduction with no real consideration of factors outside that. A hell of a lot of 'lifestylers' in Wales and if you believe John Seymour it is possible to live off 1/4 acre!

There was a lot of criticism of the Landcare (I think that was the one) calculator (which has since been removed from the web) as it effectively penalised you for walking/cycling as opposed to taking public transport!

quote:Originally posted by tigger

There was a lot of criticism of the Landcare calculator (which has since been removed from the web) as it effectively penalised you for walking/cycling as opposed to taking public transport!

I did one on the MfE website, turns out we need 5 planets for the likes of us. But it didn't take into account loads of stuff like water, recycling and seemed that only vegetarians would actually be able to save the planet, which is pants if you ask me - they'll just be bored to death. Might try some of these others....

OK, I just did the wasted one, and it said my footprint was 5x my section size, but it read my section size as 2000m2 rather than 20000m2, so it would seem that it is actually half my section size.... stupid thing probably can't cope with section sizes in hectares....

Unfortunately I know the guy who wrote the Landcare one so found it hard to comment on it... I thought it was tailored towards an urban user rather than rural (this may have changed.. I did it really early on to test it out).. they made no allowances for the trees we plant, the fact we raise our own animals etc etc...I was quite disappointed in it... Might try the wasted one and see if that is any nicer to me...

Just do what works for you and keep an open mind. Try new things if they fit and make it a gradual change. Getting paranoid about the whole deal will only lead to depression and then you will think what the hell is the point and do nothing!

Alternatives to our energy use will continue to come along and allow us to replace non-friendly sources. The important thing is to be making small chnages on an ongoing basis.

Exactly, Powerguy, well said.