How Many Earths?

Week 3: Personal reflection #2.

I've finally gotten around to starting the Coursera online course that Dr. Butler shared two weeks ago, about the U.S. Food System and Public Health. The first week's assignment was to take a Global Footprint quiz, which estimates the number of planets it would take if everyone in the world lived according to your lifestyle.  As we learned in last week's (and other weeks') readings, food is a big part of the footprint equation.

So how many Earths are required to sustain a world of people who live like me?  The answer: four.  Disturbed, I thought about ways I could reduce my footprint (less traveling, better food choices, etc.) and was able to save a whole 1/4 of a planet!  Still, I was intrigued by the class poll results, which showed that there was a small fraction of quiz-takers who landed in the "1 Earth or less" category.  I re-took the quiz, with the lowest possible footprint scenario (no electricity, 550" house with 7+ people, etc.).  Surprisingly, that low-carbon lifestyle still consumed a whopping 2.7 planet earths. 

Why?  Because I live in the United States.  The website offers the following rationale: 

"A person’s Ecological Footprint includes both personal and societal impacts. The Footprint associated with food, mobility, and goods is easier for you to directly influence through lifestyle choices (eating less meat, driving less, etc). However a person’s Footprint also includes societal impacts or “services”, such as government assistance, roads and infrastructure, public services, and the military of the country that they live in. All citizens of the country are allocated their share of these societal impacts. 

The Footprint of these societal impacts (i.e. the “services” category of your Footprint score) does not vary, and therefore in some nations it is not possible to reduce your Footprint to below one planet. 

In other words, while a person can make a concerted effort to make more sustainable personal choices, their footprint is inescapably tied to the society in which they live.  The students who scored 1 or lower lived in Costa Rica, Thailand, etc.  We (in the U.S.) each bear the brunt of this country's enormous global footprint, since we directly or indirectly are a part of its resource intensive, consumptive systems.  As the website continues to explain:

"If we want to achieve sustainability, we need to focus on two things: both our own lifestyle as well as influencing our governments. Even with significant changes in individual behavior, a large portion of a personal Footprint comes from the way national infrastructure is designed, goods are produced, and government and public services operate. 

In order to allow their citizens to achieve a lifestyle that fits within one planet, governments need to dramatically improve the efficiency of the built environment and invest in renewable energy and smart land-use planning."

If we want to sustain the planet's resources -- including the air, land, and water required to produce food -- our governments must take action to curb their consumption.  And if we want governments to take action, we must demand that they do so through collective action, consumer choices, and advocacy.

Global Footprint Calculator

P.S. Click the link above to take the quiz!