To gain some perspective, I took the ecological footprint quiz trying to "win." That is, I was trying to get the quiz to say something happy to me, like "congratulations, you're an eco-conscious savior of the human race." I answered the questions trying to make the smallest eco-footprint possible. In trying to beat the quiz, I managed to bring my eco-footprint to 2 acres. Even after the completion of the quiz, the wording didn't change. It was the same accusatory "If everyone lived like you, we would need ____ earths." I've come to the conclusion that the website isn't designed to make people feel good about what they're doing right, it's designed to make people feel bad about what they're doing wrong. Let me give you a profile of the make believe person who got a gold-star winning 2 acres of footprint.
My fictitious character, let's call him Herbert Moistwit, he is 24 years old, and he lives in a community of less than 1000 people. Herbert is a vegan and eats 100% locally grown food. He doesn't touch anything with packaging. He generates very little waste (he composts!) and he lives in a 500 square foot home with no electricity with seven other people, but the home manages to be green-designed all the same. He never flies, takes a bus, or drives a car. He walks everywhere.
It is obvious that Herbert lives in a third-world country. The lesson of the eco-quiz is that the only people who aren't taxing the earth are the very poor. Fair enough, but somebody like Herbert will never get around to logging into his Mac to check his eco-footprint. He won't even CARE what an eco-footprint is. The quiz is designed so that you always lose if you're person who is somewhat well-off in a developed country. This method of trying to bring "eco-consciousness" to people is flawed because our eco-footprints are NEVER going to get down to what they need to be. Never ever again. Either all the humans on the earth die, or we solve the problem in some other way. This solution is of course colonize the solar system.
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