Here are the results of various tests I took, un-averaged:
Family Footprints (tonnes/year unless otherwise noted)
- BP – 24
- Carbon Counter – 110.12
- EPA – 51,575 lbs
- Nature Conservancy – 57
- Sterling Planet – 17 tons
Pretty varied and depressing. I live with 3 others; my mother, father and brother. We got central air a few years ago installed into our attached unit home, and I know that there is an overuse of it. I advocate often for higher temps in summer, vice versa in winter, but you know – It’s not my house and I’m not paying the bill either. A chunk of the footprint is also a result of driving – my dad’s a truck driver for a living and my mom (used to) drive to her job downtown, a 15 mile round trip 3x a week. I don’t drive, but my brother just got his liscence.
Today actually my mom pop and I took out a large chunk of grassy area and leveled the soil for… a garden! We have smaller ones, but this will be the new home of a lot of our vegetables – next step would be planting an apple tree, but I think that’s a bit far off for my garden-loving parents (apples deposited all over the yard make for many critters as well) I am proud to say that my parents have pretty much always used organic gardening practices and our yard is a lovely place as a result… also better for the bay.
Individual Footprints
- It would take 2.9 Earths if everyone wanted to live like me.
- Sterling PLanet – a modest 3.35
- Nature COnservancy – 6.9
- BP – 7
- Climate Crisis – 1.9
Again, extremely varied. I used to live in the Copycat warehouse for a little under a year until 2 months ago – at that time my prints were all in the 1-3 range, but I am now a part of a group that doesn’t think as passionately about the issues as I do. The methodology is very different from site to site as the class knows. Despite living with my family, my day-to-day habits are very different… I bike and use public transportation – but I do ask my mother for a ride about once a month still. It used to be more, but every time I get in a car I feel a little sick, constantly plagued by my own hypocrisy.
I also eat only whole foods – meaning that what I buy is, for the most part, food in it’s original state, which I then cook into whatever form I want. I buy organic and also – I’m a 99% of the time vegetarian (w/out dairy) – meaning that once a month or so I will eat some sort of animal. I’ve found eating this way, biking everywhere too, has served me in the best possible ways psychologically and physically. Even 6 months ago when I was dumpster-diving solely for food, getting what I could when I could, and not exercising as regularly my interactions with others were strained, I had a paranoia that I could not shake. But this health and awareness of it principally is the best form of medicine I could ever recieve – the best part is I give it to myself.
THE PLAN
- GENUINE RHETORICAL DEVICES – the use of such will enable me to better educate my family (in conversational ways) about the issues at hand. I really feel that where I am with my carbon footprint is good for now – the only way it can get better in my current situation is inspiring a group – my family – to do the same. I do not mean to point fingers with the goal so to speak; I am aware of my own shortcomings… but I have been changing my behavior for the past 2 years and I am happy with the steady rate of lessening my carbon footprint.
- GET INVOLVED – I am researching a group called Maryland League of Conservation Voters, “a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization incorporated to build the effectiveness of Maryland’s environmental movement and is dedicated to maximizing the participation of conservation-minded citizens in public policy decisions made at the state and local levels regarding Maryland’s environment and natural resources.” (MD League of Conservation Voters Environmental Briefing Book, available for download at: www.marylandconservation.org) … I am most interested in really getting into public policy here.. One of the group’s proposals is a document called “Greening the Budget” that rethinks tax structures, encourages public fees for certain environmentally hazardous behaviors/choices, and most importantly – it advocates closing open spaces for development, including the Intercounty Connector which has created a lot of separation of continuous wooded areas in Maryland, severely damaging those ecosystems.
- RODGERS FORGE NEWSLETTER – My neighborhood has a committee that thinks they have a lot more power than they do, especially regarding architectural covenants and foreign-looking spanish-speaking families. However, they do provide an awesome little community newsletter – awesome in that it encourages the community to interact and does facilitate that with block parties, etc. I am in the process of proposing a column or section devoted to “green” information, tips, how-to, etc. Hopefully this can evolve into educational workshops and community efforts at composting (what I’m really aiming for achieving in this class, but which would take a lot more time to implement)
These are the concrete ideas right now. We do recycle everything, we do unplug, and we try not to buy anything.. my family and I that is. So, what I am interested in is facilitating the awareness and hopefully acceptance of issues that Gore so appropriately deemed “Inconvenient”.
