Posted by Benjamin on: 02.28.2008 /
Last November, we wrote about Consumer Consequences, a online game you can play which will give you an idea how your consumption levels match up with the planet’s resources. It takes about seven minutes to complete, and at the end it gives you a rating of how many earths we would need if everyone consumed at the same levels as you. In November, I was kind of bummed out to learn I was consuming 3.5 earths worth of energy, food, stuff, etc.
In the last 3 months, I’ve made a few relatively minor changes, and I’m yotta stoked to report that my consumption is now down to 2.3 earths.
If you pop over and play the game, let us know how you did. I promise no one will criticize you–if they do, I’ll just delete their comment =) (God I love that lovely all powerful blog host feeling =)
The things I worked on over the last 3 months were food and lighting and buying green. So I’ve been gradually switching to flourescent screw in light bulbs in the house. It works better for me anyway, since we’re in this ancient house with an ancient electrical system which kind of surges a little, and always makes the normal bulbs blow out really fast anyway. And I’ve been working on smaller food portions, and not driving so much, and less air travel. =) And buying just a few greener things–like greenish dish detergent and laundry detergent.
Share with us how you did, and what you have worked on, or plan to work on, to lower your consumption! And take part in the new poll on the sidebar!
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Comment by: joe
1 02/28/08 7:42 AM | Comment Link |I’m on 2.1 - though the fuel prices seem wrong. Maybe that is because the dollar is so low or something.
Comment by: Mel
2 02/28/08 8:18 AM | Comment Link |2.5 Earths.
I was at 1.4 until I got to the food section and then it jumped up. I never realized food made such a big impact - is that accurate? I don’t eat much meat, but I don’t often buy organic/local either…if it’s that big a deal I might have to start.
Comment by: Benjamin
3 02/28/08 1:45 PM | Comment Link |Joe, Mel,
thank you for dropping by and playing the game and sharing.
Mel–yeah, the food thing was what got me the first time I played it too. Organic has been around for a while, I guess, but, at least to me, the whole movement toward buying local food is newer idea. In fact I have a good friend who is only eating locally grown and produced food for lent, and apparently this is relatively difficult to do. It does make a certain sense. We don’t really think about it, because the cost of shipping stuff has become so relatively low in straight up dollar amounts. But I guess part of the deal is every time we ship food across the country or internationally, we are probably consuming oil and producing green house gas to do that. It’s that old incremental thing–reminds me of the calculus. a whole lot of tiny little incrementals add up to quite a bit.
My wife and I have started to, in one sense, become part of an alternative economy in terms of our food. So much perfectly good food gets thrown out, and if one is a little clever, one can start to eat not only more cheaply dollar wise, but also … more cheaply in terms of cost to the planet, because (at least this is what I tell myself), if I’m eating food that would have otherwise gone into a landfill, them I’m not really actually driving the front end process that produced that food. Maybe =).
Comment by: Benjamin
4 02/28/08 1:46 PM | Comment Link |oh my god, I split an infinitive. Oh well. =)
Comment by: David H
5 02/28/08 7:05 PM | Comment Link |I was doing really well, it seemed, until I hit the transportation issue. When I took my job the cost of housing in New Jersey was so much higher than neighboring Pennsylvania, we elected to buy a home there (it was far more rural as well). I know make a 120 mile round-trip commute each day. Heck, the nearest grocery store is 20 minutes from my house, so that doesn’t help either.
The food thing just made things worse. How much coffee do I drink a week? How about 25-30 cups. Organic, I buy it when I can, but it is not a priority item at our small super-market. Locally grown — I live in a farm area but there isn’t a lot of locally grown food (mostly corn and dairy farms).
So what’s the damning total? 5 earths. I’m not part of the problem — I am the problem.
Comment by: Benjamin
6 02/28/08 11:09 PM | Comment Link |David H.
I admire your honesty. You rock. I hope that little tidbit didn’t ruin your day or anything. I don’t really think you’re the problem per se. I think there are some really wealthy people who are probably consuming something like 50 or 100 earths. I’d say they’re the real problem. =)
But wow-25-30 cups of coffee a week. That’s totally awesome. =) And 120 mile commute. That’s astounding. Are those two sort of related? I don’t think I could manage that commute. I’m sure I’d totally get in so many accidents driving that much that my insurance rates would become untenable.
What you need is for someone to design some transporter technology, so you can beam back and forth to work =)
Comment by: David H
7 02/28/08 11:34 PM | Comment Link |Beaming would be awesome. Fortunately, the way the newspaper business is going I may soon be unemployed. That would force a few lifestyle alterations. But that is probably the biggest factor. Big newspapers are located in big cities and while I don’t mind visiting, I don’t want to live (especially with kids) in a highly urbanized area (which would encompass most of New Jersey).
On the plus side, Volkswagon just announced they plan to start building a diesel hybird. They will show it Monday at the auto show in Frankfurt, Germany. Expected MPG - 80 (that’s right, eighty miles per gallon). If they don’t ask $40 K for the thing, it might make possible to be a bit greener.
Comment by: Benjamin
8 02/29/08 2:36 AM | Comment Link |80 mpg? Isn’t that a bit unprecedented? Very kewl.
If I may ask, why do you not want to live in a highly urbanized area? Feel free to ignore if the question is too invasive =)
I hope you don’t become unemployed–that sounds like a kind of yucky possibility, and plus then all your readers would be deprived of their regular doses of your brilliant prose.
Comment by: Sharon
9 02/29/08 4:24 AM | Comment Link |2.3, unless I add in the flying I am hoping to do as part of my research, then it becomes 2.9 :-(. This also becomes a problem when one’s spouse comes from the other side of the globe (I’m sure you understand that Benjamin!).
It’s probably skewed anyway because I’m in New Zealand and I can’t get my head around all the conversions, so much of it was wildly guesstimated!
Comment by: Benjamin
10 02/29/08 8:41 AM | Comment Link |Hey Sharon–welcome! Hooray, you’re an actual honest-to-God Ph.D. student! Yotta kewl. What are you researching, exactly?
I think you can write off the air travel against all the future ways you’re going to help MTWABP as a Ph.D.
In fact, I think same goes for David with his brilliant work as a journalist, and Joe with his brilliant work with the fair trade clothing and helping the Palestinians.
So now I wanna know what Mel does?
As for me, I’m just mostly … working the system for my own benefit, so I have absolutely no excuse. =)
Comment by: Mel
11 02/29/08 11:50 AM | Comment Link |I’m a stay-at-home mom of an 8 month old right now. So nothing too impressive, just raising the next generation. ;)
Comment by: Benjamin
12 02/29/08 9:02 PM | Comment Link |Mel,
“nothing too impressive” whatever. 8 month old–wow–that is a lot of work actually. We have a 4 and a very nearly 6 year old, and … the way I figure it, my wife does at least 4 times as much work as I do in terms of taking care of them as the stay at home mom. Way to go! I think what your doing is totally making the world a better place. Rock on!
Comment by: David H
13 02/29/08 10:48 PM | Comment Link |Grew up in farm country. That has more to do with it, probably, than anything. I have lived in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia suburbs. Biggest issues were things like riding a bicycle. I was afraid to do that because of congestion/ traffic and I certainly wouldn’t allow my kids out on their own. I quit riding altogether after writing about two junior US bicycle team riders who were hit by a delivery truck in Horsham, PA. One died.
Comment by: Benjamin
14 03/1/08 11:32 AM | Comment Link |I hear you about the the freedom of your kids to be outside more and stuff in a rural area. I would feel a lot more comfortable giving my kids more freedom out “in the country” than I do here in the city.
We’re fortunate to live in an extremely bike friendly city, whith lots of designated bike lanes and person/bike only urban trails and such. That sounds like possibly a big loss for you deciding to give up riding after writing that story.
Comment by: David H
15 03/1/08 12:55 PM | Comment Link |I quit until I moved to a less urbanized area. When I had kids I bought a trailer and then some Alleycats to haul them around because we moved to a township with a bike path (that was part of the incentive for the move). Everybody around there knew us because I would daisy-chain the trailer behind the Alleycat so the older child could pedal while the younger one (both wearing helmets) played with toys in the trailer. Then off we would go to the playground or grocery shopping (parking that thing was crazy).
My visits to the west (Denver, LA, San Francisco, etc.) seem to indicate that side of the country is far more bike friendly than the east. When riding streets on my own I am frequently yelled at and have been nearly hit on numerous occasions.
Comment by: Benjamin
16 03/1/08 11:17 PM | Comment Link |That daisy chain thing sounds awesome. And I can imagine parking it. Parking just our bike/trailer combo is hard sometimes. Look at you saving the planet biking to the playground or grocery store rather than driving!
Sometimes the bus driver’s here in Seattle can be a little rude to us bicycle commuters who like to load our bikes on and off the bicycle racks on the buses. But for the most part every one is very nice about it. I wonder if the increased meanness over on the east coast is related to … smaller, narrower, tighter roadways? I just have the sense that’s the deal with roadways over there. Is that true?
have you seen this video of the crazy guy on the unicycle in new york
Comment by: Sharon McLennan
17 03/5/08 3:17 PM | Comment Link |Sorry I have been a bit slow replying to this.
Yes, I am a fully fledged PhD candidate. No make that a provisionally enrolled PhD student- full status comes after a year of work and a confirmation hearing to prove that I actually have something worthwhile to research and the ability to do it!
I am doing my PhD in Development Studies here. I will be studying the use of ICT and the internet by a network of grassroots development agencies and NGOs in Central America. Basically theres a whole bunch of people doing some really good (and some probably not so good) stuff in health, education, disaster relief and so on, and using internet-based tools to communicate and share resources. I want to see if these tools are allowing them to provide better services, and how; and if it is a good thing, how it might be replicated elsewhere. make sense?
And (not part of the research but potentially a positive spin off, and justification of my flight miles)- if we can get more people using online services to communicate then we can potentially save some of them from flying as often as development professionals are usually liable to do!
Comment by: Eliza
18 03/5/08 10:41 PM | Comment Link |OMG!! And did you see him in his own special commuter lane in the last 10 seconds of the video? !!
Comment by: Benjamin
19 03/6/08 12:16 AM | Comment Link |Sharon
thank you for telling us a little about your research
Isn’t it true, though, to some extent that we lose a lot in online communication? I suppose this quesiton comes into your research. I can’t believe I’m saying this–kind of like ragging on one of my own favorite media. hehe.
Eliza–holy crap–I never watched that video to the very end. Do you think that for real? He really is crazy.