Bigfoot or Not?

Does Your Ecological Footprint Matter? There is only one Earth, and we all need it to live well. How can we be sure we don’t use more than nature can replace? Now there’s an environmental Quiz to help you!

Have you ever wondered just how much of the planet it takes to support your lifestyle?

Well the Earth Day network has developed an on-line quiz that may just shock and amaze you…uncover the ‘bigfoot’ or praise those who tread lightly!

This Ecological Footprint Quiz helps to find out how much we take as compared to how much capacity there is on this planet.

Twenty-one questions and a few minutes of time will give you an
estimate of your own Ecological Footprint. It’s all broken down into areas of food, mobility, shelter and goods and services.

And once you submit your answers on-line, you receive in return your personalised Ecological Footprint, along with further information on the Footprint and suggestions on how to make a difference by reducing your impact, involving your friends, and guiding your leaders.

For this writer, I thought I was doing very well with a score of 4 when told the average ecological footprint in Australia is 7.6 global hectares per person. Phew!

However the crunch comes when the quiz master points out that there exists only 1.8 biologically productive global hectares per person….and if everyone lived like me we would need two and a half planets! Ouch!

Luckily the site leads you to ways of improving your score and supporting the campaign!

As well organisers will take your voice to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) this August in Johannesburg. The worldwide results obtained from the Ecological Footprint Quiz will be taken to the summit to ask political and industry leaders to commit to measurable Footprint goals.

To calculate your ecological footprint and find out how much ‘nature’ you use go www.earthday.net/footprint.stm.

We’d love to know how you rated! Why not send us an e-mail when you get your results to corpnews@probonoaustralia.com.au.