Three Planets.

I'd imagine many of you have taken this quiz at one point or another during your college career. But I recently revisited the Ecological Footprint Quiz to see what my footprint is these days. (And the quiz is totally fancy schmancy and all 3D now!) For those of you unfamiliar with what the heck an ecological footprint is and why you should care - it's a rough measure of your consumption and how much energy that uses. How much land would be required to support 6 billion other individuals living just like YOU.

The result? Is startling.

I'd like to think I make some considerable effort to make less of an impact: I eat no meat, a little dairy (hello, cheese, my love!), live in a tiny 500 square foot apartment with someone else, only commute 10 miles round trip to work, and generally make an effort to tread more lightly on the earth. And yet? I still would need THREE FRIGGIN' PLANETS to support my habits for everyone on the planet.

Seriously.

That's disheartening in so many ways. I know the statistics - we're 5% of the world's population and use 25% of the resources. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It can be depressing to think about this stuff. {An aside: I recently read an article in Newsweek about the happiness gap between 'liberals' and 'conservatives' - and how 'liberals' aren't as happy. (Gah! I hate these divisive, loaded terms. And caring about the environment shouldn't be a political issue! I really want to rant about how the religious right should give a crap about being stewards of God's creation, but I won't. Oops, a little just squirted out there, sorry.)}

This is a complex issue (when I say that, I hear Joey Tribbiani tell Monica that Chandler is 'a complex fellow, one who is unlikely to take a wife.' ha!). The quiz is obviously not 100% accurate (how can you measure something like that perfectly?) and finding solutions to these problems isn't easy, simple, or painless. But I think it's important to think about our consumption and to realize that even small changes can make impacts. And those impacts add up to BIG impacts. (There's a cool tool on the website that allows you to see how changes you make might impact your footprint.)

So, go, check it out and if you do - what's your footprint??
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Some updates:

• I'm totally going to be doing my pay-it-forward giveaway sometime soon, I promise! I bought some things to give away this weekend in Yellow Springs. Be on the lookout to enter...
• A few weeks ago, I told you guys about my MIL asking about my blog, which led me to thinking about the fantastic, insightful comments you all left. So I decided to let a few friends and my sisters know about my blog. I don't think any have taken the bait, besides my beautiful friend, Eileen, who insists this is my secret life I've been hiding. She makes me laugh. :)
• As far as the comment reply thing - I email sometimes, but I always talk aloud to my computer when I get a new comment. Like, "Aww thanks, Lindsay," "Yeah, Gabriel Brothers!," and so on. So I guess I'll email you if you have an email address associated with your Blogger ID and I want to tell you something. Otherwise, come live in my computer and hear what I have to say to you. Because replying on my own website? Kind of a pain. :) (And no one reads it, right? Why am I blathering on about this? Who cares? I'm stopping...now!)