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read it and weep...

I just took their quiz (again).   

    CATEGORY     ACRES

    FOOD             3.5
    MOBILITY     0.2
    SHELTER     8.9
    GOODS/SERVICES     6.2
    TOTAL FOOTPRINT     19

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 4.2 PLANETS.

Note that the biggest "expenditure" in my quiz is my house -- despite its modest size of 1100 sf -- in which I live alone at present.  If I retake the quiz using my boat as my residence (which I hope will soon be the case) and asserting my future lifestyle plan of never travelling by air (as opposed to my current average of 3 hours of air travel per year) and living on a more local and seasonal food supply:

    CATEGORY     ACRES
    FOOD             2.7
    MOBILITY     0
    SHELTER     0.7
    GOODS/SERVICES     0.5
    TOTAL FOOTPRINT     4

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 1.0 PLANETS.

I don't swear that these folks' analysis is perfect;  their dietary options are not granular enough to be really descriptive.  but it does suggest that my project of retiring and moving onto my boat (heavily insulated, independent of shore power, less than 400 sf) and adhering more faithfully to a 200-mile diet, will indeed be a substantial reduction of my global footprint, without giving up the foods I like, my internet connection, etc.

you can live very well on 4.5 acres.  or so I think.

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...

by DeAnander (de_at_daclarke_dot_org) on Sat Jun 9th, 2007 at 04:36:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Do you have a diary on your master plan?

Boat-based, interesting :)

by Laurent GUERBY on Sat Jun 9th, 2007 at 05:08:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
one of these days, when I finally get relocated, I hope to have a web site for the boat and the energy efficiency issues for which I hope the boat will be a life-lab and teaching platform.  at present I barely have time to read and do a bit of driveby posting, let alone maintain another web site :-(  this "simple plan" has become incredibly complicated and protracted (mostly due to nation states and their bureaucracies), and that's all I'm gonna say for now...

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...
by DeAnander (de_at_daclarke_dot_org) on Sat Jun 9th, 2007 at 08:51:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
If your contributions to this discussion represent your drive-by postings, I'm not sure that I'm ready for when you sit down with a calculated attack to a discussion.

:-)

PS: Thank you for many posts that have educated / made me think here ...

Blogging regularly at Get Energy Smart. NOW!!!

by a siegel (siegeadATgmailIGNORETHISdotPLEASEcom) on Sun Jun 10th, 2007 at 12:18:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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