How many Earths?
So Earth Day has come and gone. Having an Earth Day always reminds me of Tom Lehrer's National Brotherhood Week.
Step up and shake the hand
Of someone you can't stand,
You can tolerate him if you try!Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics
And the Catholics hate the Protestants
And the Hindus hate the Moslems
And everybody hates the JewsBut during National Brotherhood Week
National Brotherhood Week
It's National Everyone-Smile-At-
One-Another-hood Week
Be nice to people who
Are inferior to you
It's only for a week, so have no fear
Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!
I take some effort to tread lightly on the Earth. I eat mostly vegan, largely organic, get much of my groceries at the local Farmer's Market. I bike for transportation, and don't have a car. I compost and recycle, buy recycled, think about ways to reduce consumption and waste, only need to put the trash can to the curb once every 6 weeks or so.
And I have too much stuff in general — comics, books, CDs and electronics in particular — am somewhat compulsive about upgrading my Palm, fly way too often, and have generally figured that my level of consumption is still way too high for the Earth to support anything close to everyone doing.
This Ecological Footprint Quiz attempts to quantify just that. I scored 10 acres necessary to sustain me, compared to a U.S. national average of 24. If everyone lived like me, we'd need 2.2 planets. The real killer for me by their counting was that I live alone in a free-standing house. If I'd had three kids, and lived with them, my score drops to 7. The test ignores reproductive choices, which is my only big beef with it — having kids obviously has a big effect on global consumption, and one that snowballs, at that.
Many Americans consider it sacrilege to suggest that there's anything wrong in our consumption being constrained by scruple, by anything other than simply what we can afford — that economic might makes right, and the rich deserve to consume as much as they can.
That attitude itself is perhaps our most successful export. And, ultimately, I don't think it's one the species can afford.
I went to Earth Day and all I got was this lousy buzz.
Just kidding, but the Earth Day in San Francisco was put together by industrial hemp folks and I was shocked, SHOCKED! to hear reggae lyrics promoting the use of nonindustrial hemp at the event. Also, I spent the day gathering tree-hugging petition signatures and had to assist people in remembering what county they live in and other short-term memory issues.
Speaking of ecological footprints, this year, like every year, they only gave directions to the event by car. There was a "please use public transit" notice under these directions, but no clues about doing so, and a little "critical mass" ride, too.
Overall, this event had less corporate greenwashing than any Earth Day event I've been to since 1990, so I was pretty happy about that.
Posted by Jym on April 25 2002 12:56
At the Berkeley Earth Day fair, I paused at the San Francisco Vegetarian Society table.
SFVS guy: "If you have any questions about the vegetarian lifestyle, let me know."
Me: "After 11 years, I think I've pretty much figured it out."
Posted by Zed on April 25 2002 13:03
I need 3.7 earths, but I'm amused the quiz doesnt let you have no car at all. With zero car as an option I might squeeze down to 3 earths.
I don't see how anyone living in a big North American city - especially as far north as I do (in Canada) - could pare down to 1 earth. The only people I know who've come close have lived out in the country, grown their own food, etc., and even then you have to do something for winter heating, such as chopping down trees.
It does make you think how profligate we are, though.
Posted by Kate on April 25 2002 20:22