I’ve been learning more about ecological footprints and incorporating the idea into my buying schemes- which I noticed when I started thinking about buying a new composter. An ecological footprint is how much land it takes to support a person, or an activity (like heating your house) or to manufacture a particular product (like shoes). When the concept of an ecological footprint came out, it was hard to know how individuals could calculate it for themselves or make use of the idea. Now, however, people have done some work on making the concept easier to use, and you can find online ecological footprint calculators like this one.
I
like the concept of the ecological footprint for several reasons. First
off, it gives people something tangible to think about- something that
they
can visual fairly easily and understand readily. Second, rather than just
saying to people “don’t do that- it’s bad for the environment!”, you can
give them a measure and let them judge for themselves what they want to
do. I think it can also give people something positive to think about. You
can understand how you are making a difference by understanding how your
actions and choices affect your footprint. I like that.
posted at 23:55 on Fri, 20 May, 2005 |
path: /living
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