Harringtonization project

He who laughs last hasn't been told the terrible truth. -- unknown

Sunday, September 03, 2006

I took an online quiz awhile back at that computed my ecological footprint. It made me fairly upset. Here are the results followed by my thoughts on the matter.
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HERE ARE YOUR FOOTPRINT RESULTS:

CATEGORY GLOBAL ACRES
FOOD 4.9
MOBILITY 2.7
SHELTER 7.4
GOODS/SERVICES 6.9
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 22

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

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXISTS 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL ACRES PER PERSON.
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I don't accept this 'overconsumption' guilt trip imposed on me.

As a student, I live very fugally, spending only about $800 per month. I rarely ever buy anything that I don't absolutely need. I haven't bought a new pair of shoes in several years. I wait until my clothes are completely worn out before replacing them. I could go on and on. However, I took the ecological footprint quiz and still scored a 22. I can only reach one conclusion. 'Sustainable' living means living in absolute poverty.

For example, the food I eat has an ecological footprint of 4.9. That alone is supposedly more than the earth can sustain if everyone lived like me. If I wanted to live in a sustainable manner, I would have to eat less, give up going places, stop consuming goods/services and become homeless. That's just silly. If this footprint quiz is correct, then we're beyond the point of finding a practical solution.

Right now, I feel like I'm expected to feel guilty for consuming too much. To everyone who thinks I should, I have an important question to ask. At what point do we stop blaming 'overconsumption' and start blaming overpopulation? What happens when the world population doubles? Will you still expect a person to feel guilty for consuming anything more than the absolute bare minimum to simply stay alive?

The solution is not to become a starveling. How will that help curb the wild overpopulation our planet is facing? Poverty increases the birthrate! Instead, we should focus our resources on efforts that will actually help us in long run. How? Help address the source of the problem – population growth rates. Find out which countries have the highest population growth rates. Contribute to the aid organizations that are there right now working to solve this.

Convincing people to consume less will provide diminishing returns as long as the world population keeps growing. Any resource you save will be consumed at ever increasing rates as more and more babies are born. It's a losing battle. Focus on the solution, not the problem. We can't simultaneously do both.

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