Discuss your own personal consumption and how it is affected by your dwelling and social identity.
Back in high school we were required to take a test determining our ecological footprints. If the entire world lived like I did it would take over 6 Earths to sustain our current population (remember it’s always growing). After realizing some of the factors were out of my control (house size, vehicle MPG, etc.) I decided to complete the test as I wished to live in the future. Still bad news, we would need 3 Earths to sustain the ‘new and improved’ me.
Moving away to college has certainly helped lower my carbon/ecological footprint. I live in an apartment 1/3 the size of my house with 4 other people. I bike, walk or take the bus to school. I don’t eat as much meat, mainly because I can’t cook. And I always make sure to recycle empty beer cans and vodka bottles. But despite the best of efforts to lessen my global impact, I still live in America. Simply because of our public infrastructure, energy sources, urban sprawl, cultural norms, it is impossible to live a sustainable life – unless you moved into tree and dined on nuts and berries.
To analyze how exactly my footprint is affected by the country I live in and the lifestyle I lead, I took another ecological footprint test. The good news I have made an improvement over high school. The bad news is we would still need 5 Earths to sustain a population of Ben Tully. After analyzing the results I outperform most Americans in every category, except food – go figure. Although I may not make a pork roast or indulge in a big fat steak, eating meat (such as sandwich or salad meat) with every meal, along side a big tall glass of milk really balloons my footprint. I can blame growing up in “America’s Dairyland” (Wisconsin) for the milk issue, however I believe the meat issue stems to a cultural norm of Western culture.
For some reason, Western countries don’t think a meal is complete unless it includes meat. This mentality is silly and has caused an increase in poor quality food and harmful production practices (to humans, animals and the planet). Not to mention, portion sizes are HUGE in the United States and restaurants aren’t helping to solve the problem. The saying, you are what you eat, goes a long way in the context of our ecological footprint. If we are careless eaters we become careless environmentalists.
We can go on and on about climate change, but the truth of the matter extends much further than a documentary by the former US Vice President. By fixing habits and returning to a more natural and ‘green’ lifestyle we will not only help ourselves but the planet in return. And what more can we ask for then to be happy and healthy?
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