Food For Thought: Sustainability

By fromskilledhands ( May 21, 2008 at 2:20 pm) · Filed under Change, Community, Sustainability

Over at Seize A Daisy, fellow blogger and NE Ohioan, Larramie, posted about The Truth of Consumer Consequences. She explores “the question of how sustainable is America’s current lifestyle? ”

Linking to the Consumer Consequences game, Larramie asks some important questions. I found my answers sobering. We live pretty simply; however, our very old house is an energy hog, and we live too far from most places to use alternative transportation options. We grow much of our produce in season; we have chickens for eggs, and compost as much as possible. Our county has a central processing facility for recyclables, so we recycle most everything we can. That being said, it would take 2.6 earths to support me.

Larramie writes:

In addition to the sobering effect of seeing how many Earths would be necessary to sustain everyone who lives like you, the game also provides a visual depiction of what the Earth would look like if everyone did live like you. So play Consumer Consequences — not only for a reality check — but as a nudge in thinking of some changes that might allow more daisies than people to cover your Earth.

What is your impact on Planet Earth?

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8 comments »

  1. Eryl Shields said,

    May 22, 2008 @ 6:30 am

    I’m very glad to be able to report that I use one earth only (though apparently that’s still not good enough!), I guess being a hermit writer helps.

  2. TEOM said,

    May 22, 2008 @ 3:51 pm

    Thanks for the link – though we live more simply than many people I know, I am still a tad worried about what I am going to find out when I get there.

  3. Travis Erwin said,

    May 22, 2008 @ 5:03 pm

    I’ll check it out, but I’m scared what the results will be.

  4. fromskilledhands said,

    May 22, 2008 @ 8:10 pm

    Eryl, you must be a hermit writer who can walk places?

    TEOM–thanks for stopping by. Let me know how you fare.

    Travis–it’s interesting to see what our impact is.

    The very old house and the car were my nemeses.

  5. Larramie said,

    May 22, 2008 @ 10:53 pm

    And now I’m wondering exactly when consumer consequences began to affect our world? The Industrial Revolution or sooner?

  6. Cathy said,

    May 23, 2008 @ 8:49 am

    Thanks to both you and Larramie for this, Debra! We are also 2.6. It was such an eye-opener. We live in the city and what really surprised me was that our worst offense was food. Until now we haven’t grown a thing and this summer I am attempting only a few things in pots. We also live in a hundred year old house…very leaky. Well, we can work on the house…
    Anyway, thanks—good inspiration!

  7. piscesgrrl said,

    May 26, 2008 @ 12:36 pm

    I did this not too long ago and I think I had similar results. And I consider myself better than average on many things. Ug. Our downfall is the distance we drive to most things. I like to think I make up for those in other areas, but perhaps that’s just to appease my guilty conscience.

  8. fromskilledhands said,

    May 26, 2008 @ 9:51 pm

    In this country consumers dumped tea (and a whole lot else)in Boston Harbor, Larramie!

    You’re already making changes with your wee garden, Cathy. It’s not so easy–but possible– to remedy the leaky old house–there are lots of technical problems to solve

    Our downfall is the driving, too, Laura. We’re too far to walk or bike to most things/places.

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