Fun & Learning: Measure Your Carbon Footprint
 Start your day with a bowl of organic breakfast cereal. Organic food production does not create greenhouse gases. If every American converted 10% of our foods to organic, it would be the equivalent of taking 2 million car off the road each year. |
Measure your carbon footprint with the Ecological Footprint Calculator. It’s eye-opening—and fun. Earth Day Network has created the tool to combat climate change. You create your three-dimensional avatar and tour your virtual neighborhood as you answer a series of questions about your eating habits, energy use, mode of transportation, type of residence, recycling commitment and consumer consumption. The Foodprint Calculator then tells you how many “planets” would be necessary to sustain human life if everyone lived just like you, and how many acres of land and tons of carbon necessary to sustain your lifestyle. If you want, you can find out how to reduce your carbon footprint. We were shocked at our results: We don’t eat meat, don’t own a car and take public transportation a short distance to work, although we do take a few airplane trips a year. Our result: It takes 4.3 planet Earths to sustain just one of us! You have to supply an email address to start the quiz, but it’s well worth it. Take the next step at http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.html. (Note: The Footprint Calculator currently has measures for the United States and Australia only, but expects to have more countries by the end of the year.) |
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