I did a very quick run through the Global Footprint Network online ecological footprint calculator. The tool doesn't have a country-specific calculator for the UK yet, so I've used Switzerland as the nearest equivalent Western European country for which there is one. The result is shown below. It tells me something that I already suspected - I'm living at a resource consumption of 1.9 times the rate at which the planet can support me (as an average global citizen) and I use up about 4 global hectares of land to support me. I can see that the main reason for this is my choice of foods (high in meat content) and where I source it from (much of it not local food). In that respect, I think I'm fairly typical of many Western Europeans. One of the things I'm looking to achieve is to use more effectively (and sustainably) the 1 acre of land I possess (less than one hectare) to produce more food for myself, my family and community, to reduce this imbalance. Other aspects are already better balanced on my smallholding - eg energy from PV already in place. By trying out alternative scenarios in the calculator (or using a straightforward ratio on the results above), it seems that the average global footprint for 1-planet-living is equivalent to about 2 global hectares of land per person.
4 Comments
Michael Calver
9/12/2012 08:13:20 pm
My head spins with all the high tech! Great stuff.In my early years I had none of these issues to worry about, I was happy with my life as it was. Are we worrying ourselves into an early grave I wonder? When the planet has had enough of us it will say so and that will be that. Until then let a little light into our lives today as living now is pretty important to most of us. In the far future there will be technologies that we haven't dreampt of. Man will be a different creature and equipt physically and mentally in a way that the necessary changes in world physical conditions demand as it has done for all of it's history.Survival of the fittest. See Darwin!
Reply
David Calver
9/12/2012 10:42:02 pm
Thanks for the comments. What you describe is a combination of hedonism (living for the moment) and confidence in technological answers to environmental problems. You're not alone - you probably even hold the majority opinion on this. However, I'm glad there are a growing number of people with an alternative view, ie that we can't continue to "fiddle while Rome burns". We owe it to following generations to do something, now, about the deteriorating balance between mankind and the rest of nature. Many people fear that the point at which technologies will be capable of stopping or reversing the damage and resource depletion already caused will be too late to prevent a tipping over into a very much more human-hostile environment where only the very few (if anyone) survives. There's even a new department in Cambridge University that is now considering the threats to human existence from climate change and (interestingly) from Artificial Intelligence - ie the very type of technology you see as being part of the answer might also be part of a new problem.
Reply
Michael Calver
13/1/2013 07:20:03 pm
Hi again but very much delayed!
David Calver
13/1/2013 08:13:20 pm
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
About the BloggerI'm David Calver - an Accountant with a passion for sustainability. Categories
All
Archives
February 2016
|